LIBRARY OF CONPRircc 

■■■■■■I 

0000^5444,33 




Qass 
Book 



THE 



CONTINUOUS HISTORY 



OF 



ST. PAUL: 

WITH 

THE HOR^E PAULINA 

SUBJOINED. 






London : 

Printed by A. Spottiswoode, 

New- Street- Square. 



THE 



HOM PAULINA 



OF 



WILLIAM PALEY, D.D. 



CARRIED OUT AND ILLUSTRATED IN 



A CONTINUOUS HISTORY 



APOSTOLIC LABOURS AND WRITINGS 

OF 

ST. PAUL, 

ON THE BASIS OF THE ACTS, 

WITH INTERCALARY MATTER OF SACRED NARRATIVE SUPPLIED 
FROM THE EPISTLES, 

AND ELUCIDATED IN 

OCCASIONAL DISSERTATIONS. 



BY JAMES TATE, M.A 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR 

LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
1840. 




of 



INTRODUCTION 



TO THE 



CONTINUOUS HISTORY OF ST. PAUL, 



When Dr. Paley remarked, in his Exposition of the 
Argument of the Horae Paulinae (p. 9. as here re- 
printed), that his own subject, in that work of un- 
rivalled merit and originality, had never been proposed 
or considered in the same view before ; it is much to 
be lamented, that he did not advance one step farther 
in his reflections. It might have occurred to his mind, 
that neither Ludovicus Cappellus nor Bishop Pearson 
nor Dr. George Benson nor Dr. Lardner, in the con- 
tinued history of St. Paul's life which each of them had 
written, made up from the Acts of the Apostles and 
the Epistles joined together, could have given the 
whole of that history under its only true and natural 
aspect. They were not qualified to give it so ; inas- 
much as not one of those authors, however successful as 
to some of the Epistles, had been fortunate enough to 
take the whole of them in that just succession, which 
Dr. P.'s own labours in the Horse Paulinas have so 
admirably contributed to point out and establish. 

If happily for the cause of sacred learning Dr\ Paley 
had thus reflected, he must have felt that a great desi- 
deratum, therefore, remained : and if he had then bent 
the powers of his mind to the task, such a complete 
narrative, on a correct and clear arrangement of all the 

a 3 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

materials for it, might have been the result, as would 
have left nothing to regret in that great line of apo- 
stolic literature. 

But what is the consequence now ? Numerous and 
important as the points are, bearing on the apostle's 
personal history, which have their incidental illustra- 
tion in the Horse Paulinae ; yet for want of some col- 
lective retrospect to exhibit the points so gained in a 
distinct line of view, that value of his admirable work 
is even yet perhaps imperfectly estimated, while the 
farther task, to carry out those great beginnings of the 
Horag Paulinas into something like a regular narration, 
after the lapse of fifty years, is left for other hands, 
however inferior, to execute. 

In the pursuit and execution of a design arduous 
enough, as a Christian and a Scholar, I have, with 
God's blessing, honestly done my best. The faithful 
labour now of some years has been assiduously devoted 
to the employment ; and it would be an affectation of 
humility to dissemble the hope, that those efforts will be 
found not to have been bestowed in vain. 

It must be immediately seen, that in tracing my 
course through the Pauline epistles, Dr. Paley's chart 
has been steadily kept in view ; but it will be evident 
also, that I have not failed to take accurate observa- 
tions of my own. On this point, indeed, every atten- 
tive reader is enabled to judge for himself. The pas- 
sages in the H. P. are referred to more frequently, 
perhaps, than the occasion may always demand; and the 
texts from the New Testament are produced or quoted 
with similar exactness. 

The object of the work, in whatever degree it is 
satisfactorily effected, will be to exhibit in a clearer 
light than before the series and succession of the labours 
and writings of St. Paul in every stage of his apostolic 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

course, and to develope the circumstances of every 
person and place, at all important, with which the Acts 
or the Epistles represent him connected. 

In speaking thus largely, however, of the design on 
which these pages are occupied, as a solemn protest 
against misrepresentation let me now declare : that I 
do not believe one fact in the least affecting the his- 
torical evidence of Christianity, much less one word of 
truth necessary to the salvation of its followers, remains 
in these days, or can remain, for human ingenuity to 
discover and demonstrate. And yet so long as ever the 
Christian student shall take an interest in contemplating 
the truths and evidences of our common faith, no sin- 
cere attempts like the present to improve the clearness 
and consistency with which it may be historically viewed, 
will ever be unnecessary or ever be unwelcome. 

My plan of proceeding in this work is easily seen on 
the inspection of its contents. The Acts of course 
constitute the basis of the sacred narrative ; while such 
facts and circumstances, omitted in the direct history 
or slightly touched only, as can be supplied from the 
Epistles, in the place which invites their insertion, are 
duly incorporated with the Acts. But this is generally 
done in a manner so plain and favourable for consulting 
and verifying, that the reader can instantly refer to the 
particulars concerned, and judge on inspection for 
himself. The use which is here made of " undesigned 
coincidences " to complete or qualify passages in the 
apostolic history, forms a very essential part of the work, 
as the references to the H. P. will sufficiently show. 
Something also will be found to be done, where the 
coincidences, when seen, are direct and obvious enough ; 
and that, in some cases, where without close and patient 
investigation, the light thrown from one passage on 
another could not have been elicited. Additions of 

a 4 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

this latter kind, when they occur, it must be left to the 
reader to appreciate. 

In order to preserve as much as might be the line of 
personal narrative without interruption, whatever in the 
way of argument became necessary for elucidating either 
facts or reasonings, has been generally set aside for 
separate perusal, in an Appendix of Dissertations ; for 
all of which the best attention that can be given, may 
be reasonably claimed. The most important subject of 
the whole, perhaps, from its involving so deeply and 
extensively the just succession of apostolic events, is that 
in Appendix D, p. 152., on the " developement of 
Corinthian transactions," &c, and especially at p. 160. 
s. 6., the " Original argument against the early date of 
the Epistle 1 Timothy." 

By no single cause of error, perhaps, have learned 
men been more speciously misled than by their con- 
founding the apostle's departure from Ephesus after the 
riot, in Acts xx. 1., with that mentioned to Timothy, 
in 1 Tim. i. 3. And no pains therefore can be con- 
sidered superfluous which may serve to exhibit the mis- 
dating of that one event in its true light, as disturbing 
the harmony of all others any way connected with it. 

The posteriority indeed of that epistle (and of the 
Epistle to Titus along with it) to St. Paul's first 
imprisonment at Rome constitutes the very column ; on 
which the calculation here adopted and maintained for 
what is called the Last apostolic progress, has entirely to 
rest for its support. And I feel no hesitation in de- 
claring myself, to the full extent of moral proof, con- 
vinced ; that such in the main, as here elicited from the 
two Epistles, must those facts have been which fill up 
the interval, otherwise quite blank, betwixt the first and 
second times of imprisonment at Rome. 

On the subject of Chronology^ some farther account 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

of what has been done, may naturally be expected. 
And here let me say very candidly, that the task of 
chronological research, strictly so called, I have re- 
garded not as lying out of my way, but as a very fit 
subject for separate inquiry. I have set myself, there- 
fore, to investigate and determine the series and succes- 
sion of the principal events in the line of apostolical 
history, without making any attempt to calculate exactly 
the period of time betwixt every one great point in that 
line and every other. It may not be always true, but 
in this department of sacred narrative it can hardly, I 
think, be denied, that the succession of events, if once 
ascertained, may throw light on the calculation of in- 
tervals ; while no intervals, that I can see, are yet by 
general agreement so certainly defined, as to afford a 
safe clue for adjusting the succession where that is 
otherwise matter of dispute. 

For the present I have adopted, if not as absolutely 
correct, yet as not very far from the truth, the dates of 
Bishop Tomline given in his Introduction to the Study 
of the Bible, partii. ch. 7-> Of St Paul. At all events, 
in general agreement with Dr. Paley, his calculations 
are formed on that relative order of the epistles, which 
it is one purpose of this work more clearly to establish : 
and from the adoption of those dates, with that under- 
standing, no important error is ever likely to ensue. 

For geographical assistance in reading the Con- 
tinuous History, something in the way of an appropriate 
sketch has been attempted. In my judgment, for 
practically illustrating the travels of St. Paul, the 
simplest plan will be the best also. Suppose the lead- 
ing aspect of different countries from good maps to be 
already known, which for the most part may safely 
enough be assumed ; and then let the map here given 
for that especial purpose, exhibit all the places on record 



X INTRODUCTION. 

as actually traversed, so much and no more. The 
student will have the lands and seas in outline before 
him ; and as he reads of each separate journey or voy- 
age, he can surely trace for himself the course of the 
narrative, just as the apostle passes along from one dis- 
tinct scene of action or suffering to another. A plan 
like this, if fairly pursued, will hardly fail to answer 
its end. 

To the Notes critical and grammatical a few words 
may next be allotted. In some passages, more or less 
important, where our Version was not constructed on 
the true text, as being at that era not known or not 
duly appreciated, I have readily availed myself, but 
only where the subject demanded it, of the Lectio in- 
dubie genuina of the text of Griesbach, to secure the 
just and satisfactory interpretation. And if on some 
other texts with less urgent reason for it I have once 
or twice delivered a remark of illustration, the lovers of 
correct learning will hardly condemn a liberty taken 
within such modest bounds. 

On all occasions, whether adverted to in the Notes 
or not, wherever I have in any way freely deviated from 
our Version, the better to bring out the meaning of the 
original, to qualify or develope it ; the attentive reader 
with his New Testament open for reference will be at 
no loss to discern what is so intended, and to accept it 
accordingly. 

The Index of places and persons, &c. will be found 
particularly useful as presenting in the order of time a 
brief sketch of each subject, according to the relation 
which it bore to the principal agent. That Index will 
be not less efficient also, to show how the subordinate 
parts harmonize with the whole and with each other ; 
as well as to demonstrate that collective consequence 
both of persons and places, which might be undervalued, 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

if not lost, when occurring in points of distant detail. 
Troas alone may well suffice to exemplify the latter 
remark. 

The CONTINUOUS HISTORY is here divided 
into Parts. Some account may be expected of that 
division. My first idea was that now exhibited in the 
body of the work, 

in Part I. to place whatever is known of St. Paul 

prior to his first apostolic progress, to p. 10. ; 
in Part II. the three apostolic progresses from An- 
tioch, including the private journey and the public 
mission to Jerusalem between the first and second 
of those progresses, and the third progress ter- 
minating, at p. 81., in the great Jewish Persecu- 
tion which closes with his deliverance from the 
first imprisonment at Rome, p. 117. ; 
in Part III. the fourth and last apostolic progress, 

from Rome, p. 124. ; 
in Part IV. his return to Rome, and his martyrdom 

there, p. 132. 
In point of facility, however, for comprehension and 
memory, I have since thought that method of classify- 
ing the principal events, given in the five Chronological 
Tables here subjoined, to have the decisive advantage ; 
especially as the three early progresses, those from 
Antioch, are concluded each in its own Table, i. ii. hi., 
while Table iv., devoted to the long persecution which 
began at Jerusalem, preludes to Table v. of the last 
Progress, that from Rome to Rome again, which leads 
at once to the Apostle's martyrdom. 

Very fortunately by either method the large group- 
ings of historic matter are presented according to their 
real importance ; so that no inconvenience is likely to 
arise, whichever of the two divisions be at the time 
preferred and followed. But for permanent use that 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

of the Tables will justly have the preference : it is re- 
commended for adoption accordingly. 



And here, before concluding, the pleasing office re- 
mains, to acknowledge some particular obligations con- 
tracted in the course of this work, which has in fact 
been long and laborious. 

Dr, Hastings Robinson, well known as a scholar and 
a divine, deserves my best thanks for the benefit derived 
from the use of his library, and the reference, at times, 
to his judgment, during my residence in that part of 
Essex \ where the convenience of immediate neighbour- 
hood favoured the enjoyment of friendship with such 
persons as Dr. H. R., the Rector of Great Warley, and 
our common friend, Mr. Yorke, the Rector of Shenfield. 

To my son, Mr. Thomas Tate, now in the cure of 
Edmonton, as heretofore in that of Hutton, my valu- 
able coadjutor, I testify, with much pleasure, that I 
have been greatly indebted : very much so for his aid at 
a critical period of my labours, in the happy extrication 
out of certam difficulties, occasioned by that brevity, 
bordering on the obscure, with which the movements 
of the Apostle are sometimes narrated in the Acts. 

Eor frequent readiness to assist me by his accurate and 
extensive acquaintance with ecclesiastical antiquity, let 
my estimable young friend, Mr. R. C. Jenkins, of Tri- 
nity College, Cambridge, be thus duly thanked. His 
Short Defence of the Eucharistical Doctrine of the 
Church of England has been already well received ; 
and may justify the expectation in time of maturer 
fruits from learning and talent like his so united. 

Amen Corner, St. Paul's, 
Oct. 21. 1840. 



SIX CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 

OF THE 

PRINCIPAL EVENTS, &c. 



A. D, 

34. 
35. 



38. 



42. 



44. 



45. 



TABLE I. Pa s e 

SAUL before his conversion .... - - 1 

. . . the conversion of Saul. - - - 3 
Saul afterwards at Damascus: his journey into 

Arabia, and return. - 5 

Escapes from Damascus. Saul at Jerusalem, 

thence to Tarsus ... - - - - 6, 7 



The Gospel preached out of Palestine - - 8 

first to Jews, then to Gentile Proselytes - - 9 



Barnabas brings Saul to Antioch for his co- 
adjutor ... - - - - — 
CHRISTIANS first so named in that city. - — 
The dearth in Judea : relief carried by B. and S. 
from Antioch. - - - - 10 



From Antioch, the first Apostolic Progress, 
of Barnabas and Saul, solemnly commis- 
sioned: - - - 11, 12 

To the isle of Cyprus, where Sergius Paulus, the 
first idolatrous Gentile, is converted : - 13 

to Antioch in Pisidia, where Paul (now so called) 
preaches, - - - - 15 

and there the first great conversion of idolatrous 
Gentiles. - - - 18 

From Antioch they flee to Iconium ; thence, to 
Lystra: - - - - 19 

the miraculous cure of the cripple there, and its 
consequences : - - - - 20 

thence to Derbe, and there without any hindrance 21 

Through Pisidia to Pamphylia . . . and by 
Attalia back to Antioch in Syria, - - 22 

now the metropolis of Gentile Christianity. 



Xlv CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

TABLE II. 



A. D, 



[48.] 



49. 



50. 



51, 



A t ■ Fage 

As preliminary to the second Apostolic Progress, 
two important events may be considered and 
placed here : — 

the private journey of Paul and Barnabas with 
Titus - - - _ - 23 

to Jerusalem, followed by the rebuke of Peter at 
Antioch ; 

the public mission of Paul and Barnabas to Jeru- 
salem, - - - - - 26 

the council held there, and the decree. 



53. 



From Antioch, the second Apostolic Progress. 32 
Paul, not now with Barnabas, but accompanied 

by Silas, - - - 34 

sets out, through Syria and Cilicia, to visit the 

Churches : 
at Lystra joined by Timothy, through Phrygia 

and (the^r^ time) Galatia, - - 35, 36 

onward to Troas, the first time ; there joined by 

Luke, they pass into Macedonia. - - 37 

At Philippi, the first time, cruelly treated ; - 38 

but the foundation of a pure church miracu- 
lously laid there : 
to Thessalonica and Berea ; from Berea, Paul 

escapes by sea, - - - - 41.. 43 

passes to Athens, his discourse there on Mars' 

Hill: 44 

to Corinth the first time, meets with Aquila and 

Priscilla ----- 47 
writes the EPISTLE to the GALATIANS; - 48 
overtaken there by Silas and Timothy, from Berea 

and Thessalonica ; 
writes the 1 and 2 EPISTLES to the THES- 

SALONIANS... - - 50 

is carried by the Jews before Gallio, who drives 

them away. - - - - 51 

From Corinth, to Ephesus the first time, a short 

stay there . . - - - - 53 

and visits Jerusalem in his way, before he re- 
turns - - - - - — 
from the second progress, to Antioch. 



A. D. 



54. 



56. 



57. 



58. 



OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS. XV 

TABLE III. 

Page 

From Antioch, the third Progress. 

Paul, now attended by Timothy, Erastus, and 

Titus, - - - - - 56 

revisits the churches, of Galatia the second time, 

and of Phrygia . . - - - - 57 

then goes down to Ephesus, the second time, - 58 

where he exercises the dispensation of miraculous 

gifts. - - - - 59 

Writes the First EPISTLE to the CORIN- 
THIANS: the occasion of it. - - 61 
After the riot raised by Demetrius, he leaves 

Ephesus abruptly, - - - - 63 

by Troas, second time, hastens to Philippi, the 

second time, - - - - - 66 

where he overtakes Timothy, and meets Titus — 
(whom he had sent, by different ways, to Corinth, 

pp. 154, 5.) 
Writes the Second EPISTLE to the CO- 
RINTHIANS. - - - 66 
From Philippi he goes over those parts as far 

as Illyricum, - - - - - 67 

and thence once more, now the second time, to 

Corinth : - - - - - — 

from that city writes the EPISTLE to the 

ROMANS. — 

On his return, he chuses to take the route through 

Macedonia, . . - - - - 71 

— at Philippi, the third time, and so by Troas 

the third time . . - - - 73 

At Miletus, has the Elders from Ephesus to meet 

him; - - - - 75 

thence to Cesarea, and though solemnly warned 

of his da. ger, - - - - 78 

he goes up to Jerusalem, where his third Progress 

is abruptly terminated - - "70 

by Persecution of the Jews. 



XVI CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

TABLE IV. 



A. D. 

58. 



60. 



61. 



62. 



Page 

The great Jewish Persecution (to the end of 
the Acts) - - - -82 

begins at Jerusalem, where Paul is violently ap- 
prehended in the Temple . . . Proceedings there 
before the chief captain Lysias : before the 
Chief Priests : - - - - 83 

he is carried away to Cesarea for safety ; -88 

on his trial there before Felix, accused by the 
Jews: - - - - 89 

Felix (with Drusilla) hears him concerning the 
faith in Christ. - - - - 91 

Festus after two years succeeds to Felix. - - 92 
(During that period, how Luke had been 
occupied, p. 162.) 

Paul, to protect himself from treachery, appeals 
to Caesar : - - - 95 

and before Agrippa (and Bernice) delivers that 
wonderful speech. - - - - 97 

He is sent off to Rome, with Luke and Ari- 
starchus as his companions; ■ - - - 100 

the voyage till they reach the isle of Crete . . . the 
danger - 101 

then foreseen and foretold — and the shipwreck 
at Malta . . - - - - 104 

Paul and the viper . . he miraculously also heals 
the father of Publius. - - - 105 

After three months, they set sail, and touch at 
Syracuse , . 

at Puteoli, where they land, brethren are found . . 
afterwards is met by brethren from Rome ; and 
on arriving there, declares to the Jews the cause 
of his coming. - 107 

During the two years in that city, visited or 
attended by various friends, 

he writes Epistles to EPHESIANS, COLOS- 
S1ANS, PHILEMON. - - 108 . . 112 

Luke probably left him (how to be occupied and 
where, p. 116.) before he wrote the EPISTLE 
to the PHILIPPIANS. - - - — 

Soon after that came his expected liberation from 
the first imprisonment at Rome. 



N.B. His Epistle to the Hebrews probably written 
soon after this time. 



A. D. 



OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS. XVII 



TABLE V. 



Last Progress from Rome to Rome again, ending 
in the second imprisonment and martyrdom 
there. 



Page 



63. Paul, intending to visit Asia first, and afterwards 

Macedonia, - - - - 118 

takes with him Titus and Timothy . . - - 1 1 9 

the one he stations in Crete ; the other he leaves 
at Ephesus, - - - - 120 

now visited by him for the third time : 

he himself, via Troas, visits PHILIPP1, both for 
the fourth time .. . - 121 

from Philippi, he writes to TIMOTHY the 
FIRST EPISTLE, and - 

before setting out to the N. W. parts, he writes 
the EPISTLE to TITUS, and summons 
him to Nicopolis, as the place where he means 
to winter. - - - - 123 

After accomplishing these plans, Paul on his re- 
turn takes Corinth, now visited for the third 
time ; passes over to Ephesus, the fourth time 
visited ; leaves Trophimus sick at Miletus ; and 
soon after arrives in Rome. - - - 124 

There he is again apprehended ; during his im- 
prisonment writes the sacred legacy of his last 
farewell, 
the SECOND EPISTLE to TIMOTHY, 125 

(now at Philippi, pp. 123, 4., whither he had been 
some time ago removed from Ephesus ;) 

65 and at Rome Paul suffers Martyrdom - 132 

[or 

66.] 



XV111 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



TABLE VI. 

Of the xiii Epistles which bear the Name of Paul, 
in their just order of tlme and place. 



A. D. 

Six, before the Jewish persecution which car- 
ried him from Jerusalem to Rome : — 



51 



56. 



57. 



62. 



64- 



Page 



GALATIANS.. - _ J written from Co- 1 48 

1&2THESSALONIANSJ ™^£^£J 50 

1 CORINTHIANS, from! 

Ephesus - - - 61 

2 CORINTHIANS, from Lin his third Pro- 
Philippi - - gress - 66 

ROMANS, from Corinth - - 67 



Four, from Rome, while imprisoned there : — 

EPHESIANS, COLOSSIANS, PHILE- 
MON, - - - 108.. 112 
PHILIPPIANS, shortly before his liberation — 



Two, after he left Rome, on his fourth Pro- 
gress : — 

1 TIMOTHY, and TITUS, both from Phi- 
lippi - - - - 121 .. 123 



65 

[or 
66.2 



One, in his final imprisonment : — 

2 TIMOTHY, from Rome - - 125 



TABLE OF REMAINING CONTENTS. XIX 



TABLE VII. 
Of the remaining Contents. 



Page 

NOTES Grammatical and Critical - - 133 



Articles of APPENDIX. 



A. On the posteriority of the Council of Jerusalem, &c. 141 

B. On the early Date of the Epistle to the Galatians - 146 

C. On the Vision and the Thorn in the Flesh - - 150 

D. On the Corinthian Transactions, as Timothy and 

Titus are concerned, &c. - - - 152 

E. On Luke, his Gospel, and the Acts of the Apostles 162 

F. On the question of Paul's Visit to Spain - - 171 

G. On the Epistle to the Hebrews - - - 184 



INDEX of Persons and Places. 

Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla, Erastus, Gaius of Derbe 189 
Illyricum, Jerusalem, Luke, Malta - - - 193 

Peter, James, and John; James the Less; Silas - 196 

Timothy, Titus, Troas, Tychichus - - - 199 



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MAIH 




PART I. 

THE HISTORY OF ST. PAUL PRIOR TO HIS FIRST 
APOSTOLIC PROGRESS. 



SAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 

Rom. xi. 1. An Israelite, of the seed of Abraham 
of the tribe of Benjamin. 

Philip, iii. 5. Circumcised the eighth day, of the 
stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of 
the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee ; 

6. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; touch- 
ing the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 

Acts xxii. 3. I am verily a man which am a Jew, 
born in Tarsus — 

(xxi. 39. a city in Cilicia ; a citizen of no mean city) — 
yet brought up in this city (Jerusalem) at the feet of 
Gamaliel (for whose reputation and wisdom, see Acts, 
ch. v. 34... 39«), and taught according to the perfect 
manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous 
toward God, as ye all are this day. 



A. vii. 55. Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, 
looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory 
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. 

56. And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, 
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 

57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and 
stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 

B 



L Z . THE CONVERSION OF SAUL, 

Acts vi. 58. And cast him out of the city, and 
stoned him : and the witnesses laid down their clothes 
at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. 

59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, 
and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 

60. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud 
voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ! And 
when he had said this, he fell asleep. 

A. xxii. 20. And when the blood of thy martyr 
Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consent- 
ing unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that 
slew him. 

A. viii. 1. And Saul was consenting unto his death. 
And at that time there was a great persecution against 
the church which was at Jerusalem ; and they were all 
scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and 
Samaria, except the apostles. 

2. And certain good and pious men (see Note) 
carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lament- 
ation over him. 

3. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, en- 
tering into every house ; and haling men and women, 
committed them to prison. 

4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad, went 
every where preaching the word. 



THE CONVERSION OF SAUL, 



Acts ix. 1. And Saul yet breathing out threaten- 
ings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, 
went unto the high priest, 



THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 6 

Acts ix. 2. And desired of him letters to Damas- 
cus to the synagogues, (that is, several, for Damascus 
abounded in a Jewish population,) that if he found any 
of this way, whether they were men or women, he might 
bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 

3. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus ; 
and suddenly there shined round about him a light 
from heaven : 

4. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice 
saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 

5. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the 
Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest : it is 
hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

6. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do ? And the Lord said 
unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be 
told thee what thou must do. 

7. And the men which journeyed with him stood 
speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no man. 

8. And Saul arose from the earth ; and when his 
eyes were opened, he saw no man : but they led him 
by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. 

9. And he was three days without sight, and neither 
did eat nor drink. 

10. And there was a certain disciple (a Christian 
convert) at Damascus, named Ananias : and to him said 
the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, 
I am here, Lord. 

11. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go 
into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in 
the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus : for, 
behold, he prayeth, 

12. And hath seen in a vision a man named 
Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that 
he might recover his sight. 

b 2 



4< THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

Acts ix. 13. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I 
have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath 
done to thy saints at Jerusalem : 

14. And here he hath authority from the chief 
priests to bind all that call on thy name. 

15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way : for 
he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear mv name before 
the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel : 

16. For I will shew him how great things he must 
suffer for my name's sake. 

17. And Ananias went his way, and entered into 
the house (v. 11.), and putting his hands on him, said, 
Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto 
thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that 
thou mightest recover thy sight, and be filled with the 
Holy Ghost. 

18. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it 
had been scales ; and he recovered sight forthwith, and 
arose, and was baptized. 

19. And when he had received meat, he was 
strengthened, i. e. restored to his usual strength. 



The parallels in his own narrative of this miraculous 
event, on two different occasions afterwards, will be 
found below, A. xxii. 4...16., and xxvi. 9... 18. And 
for the correspondency betwixt the apostle's history 
given in this part of the Acts and various particulars 
of it recorded in his own epistles, HoRiE Paulina, 
pp. 81... 85. may be advantageously consulted. 



A. ix. 19. Then was Saul some days (not many) 
with the disciples which were at Damascus. 

20. And straightway he preached Jesus (see Note) 



SAUL AFTER HIS CONVERSION. 5 

in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God, in other 
words, the Messiah that was to come. 

Acts ix. 21. But all that heard him were amazed, 
and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which 
called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for 
that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the 
chief priests ? 

22. But Saul increased the more in strength, and 
confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving 
that this person (Jesus of Nazareth) is indeed the 
Messiah. 



All circumstances considered, here seems the place in 
order of time to introduce what by Luke on his plan 
of brevity is here passed over in silence, the journey 
into Arabia ; of which we should have known nothing, 
had not the apostle been led himself to record it by a 
peculiar occasion, and for the purpose of giving strength 
to his argument, that his was a divine commission, and 
dependent on no human authority. 

Galat. i. 15... 17., and see H. P. 81, 2. 

15. But when it pleased God, who separated me 
from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 

16. To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach 
him among the heathen ; immediately I conferred not 
with flesh and blood : 

17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which 
were apostles before me ; but I went into Arabia, and 
returned again unto Damascus. 



This seclusion seems to have lasted during a great 
part at least of the three years mentioned in Galat. i. 18. 
as quoted below. 

B 3 



6 SAUL AFTER HIS CONVERSION. 

Acts ix. %3. And after that many days (the same 
with those three years, H. P. 82. Note) were thus ful- 
filled, the Jews (at Damascus) took counsel to kill 
him : 

24. But their laying await was known of Saul. 
And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 

25. Then the disciples took him by night, and let 
him down by the wall in a basket. 



For the account of this deliverance as related in 
2 Corinth, xi. 32, 33. and its correspondency with that 
here given, vide H. P. 56. 

And now before resuming the direct history of the 
Acts, let the following brief narrative come in as its 
parallel. 

Galat. i. 18. Then after three years (i. e. from 
his conversion) I went up to Jerusalem, to become ac- 
quainted with Peter, to visit and converse with him ; 
and I abode with him accordingly, but only for fifteen 
days. 

(The shortness of that stay is accounted for below, 
A. ix. 29, 30., and vide H. P. 97-) 

19. But other of the apostles saw I none, at that 
time, save James the Lord's brother. 



Acts ix. 26. And when Saul was come from Da- 
mascus to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the 
disciples generally : but they were all afraid of him at 
the first, and could not believe that he was indeed a 
disciple. 

27. But Barnabas (who seems therefore to have had 
some previous acquaintance with Saul) took him by the 
hand, and brought him to the apostles (Peter and James 



SAUL AFTER HIS CONVERSION. 7 

the Less), and declared unto them (on his own convic- 
tion) how Saul had seen the Lord on that journey, and 
that the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had 
preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 

Acts ix. 28. And Saul after this was with the 
disciples, coming in and going out, at Jerusalem. 

29. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians in particular, 

— these were foreign Jews who spoke the Greek lan- 
guage and not the Hebrew of that day ; and from 
Damascus probably at this time, some of those who had 
taken counsel to destroy him there, supra, v. 23. — 

but they now showed increased perverseness and actually 
went about to slay him : 

30. Which wicked design of the Grecians when the 
brethren knew, they brought him down to Cassarea, and 
sent him forth (by sea) to Tarsus. 

— In that city, and in Cilicia generally, he would 
immediately devote himself to the planting of those 
churches which we find him afterwards (A. xv. 41.) 
confirming. — 

During this short stay of Saul at Jerusalem, he was 
also warned in a vision not to remain unprofitably there, 
for that he was designed to occupy another and distant 
field of apostolic labour. 

A. xxii. 17. And it came to pass that when I was 
come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the 
temple, I was in a trance ; 

18. And saw the Lord saying unto me, Make haste, 
and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will 
not receive thy testimony concerning me. 

21. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send 
thee far hence, among the Gentiles. 



b 4< 



8 THE GOSPEL PREACHED OUT OF PALESTINE — 

Acts ix. 31. Then had the churches rest through- 
out all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, being edified 
accordingly ; and walking in the fear of the Lord and 
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied and 
increased in numbers. 



" This rest synchronises with the attempt of Cali- 
gula to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem ; the 
threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews a 
consternation that, for a season, diverted their atten- 
tion from every other object." — Palei/'s Evidences of 
Christianity, ed. ] 825. pp. 294. and 42. 



A. xh 19. Now they which were scattered abroad 
upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, had tra- 
velled as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch, — 

— Antioch, the capital of Syria, ranking as a city 
next after Rome and Alexandria, and here first 
mentioned, is ere long to become the metropolis of 
Gentile Christianity, — 

and they preached the word to none but to the Jews 
only for some time at the first. 

— But the surprising conversion of the devout Cor- 
nelius and his family by the apostle Peter (A. ch. x.), 
with the miraculous instruction stated as the all-suffi- 
cient plea for his conduct (xi. 1...18.), might in the 
mean while have become known to those pious mission- 
aries. Suppose that to have taken place ; and every 
thing in this stage as in others will proceed naturally 
along in gradual advancement. 



20. And some of them were men of Cyprus and of 
Cyrene (in Libya), which when they were come to An- 



FIRST TO JEWS ; THEN TO GENTILE PROSELYTES. 9 

tioch, spake unto the Greeks, i. e. Gentile proselytes, 
preaching unto them also the Lord Jesus. 

(In regard to the names, Greeks, and Grecians, so 
essentially affecting the sense of the whole passage, sa- 
tisfaction, it is hoped, will be afforded in the Note on 
this verse.) 

Acts xi. 21. And the hand of the Lord was with 
them in this new spiritual enterprise : and a great 
number of the Greeks believed and turned unto the 
Lord, i. e. became converts to the gospel. 

22. Then tidings of these things, of proselytes also 
being taught and converted, came unto the ears of the 
church which was at Jerusalem : and they, in conse- 
quence of it, sent forth Barnabas, that he should go, 
with their authority, as far as Antioch, 

23. Who, when he came there and had seen the 
grace of God thus farther extended, was glad accord- 
ingly ; and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart 
they would cleave unto the Lord. 

24. For he was a man truely benevolent, and not only 
so, but full of the Holy Ghost and of faith : and much 
people (of the proselyte class) was now added to the Lord. 

25. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus (vide A. ix. 
30.) for to seek Saul and to take him as his coadjutor. 

26. And when Barnabas had found him, he brought 
him unto Antioch. 

— On this part of Saul's history while at Tarsus, and 
afterwards in company with Barnabas, H. P. 71, 2. may 
be profitably consulted. — 

And it came to pass, that for a whole year Barnabas 
and Saul assembled themselves with the church, and 
taught much people. 

And it is thought worthy of being recorded here, 
that by an appropriate appellation the disciples were 
called CHRISTIANS first in Antioch. 



10 SAUL AND BARNABAS AT ANTIOCH. 

Acts xi. 27. And in these days came prophets 
from Jerusalem unto Antioch. 

28. And there stood up one of them named Aga- 
bus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be 
great dearth throughout all that part of the world (es- 
pecially Judea) : which came to pass in the days of 
Claudius Caesar. 

29. Then the disciples at Antioch, every man ac- 
cording to his ability, determined to send relief unto 
the brethren which dwelt in Judea : 

30. Which also they did, and sent it to the elders 
thereby the hands of Barnabas and Saul. 

— "As far as we know or have reason to believe, 
this is the first transaction of the kind in the history of 
the world." — Bishop Sumner's Practical Exposition 
on the Acts. 



11 



PART II. 

THE THREE APOSTOLIC PROGRESSES FROM 
ANTIOCH, 

WITH THE PRIVATE JOURNEY AND THE PUBLIC MISSION 
TO JERUSALEM, BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND 
PROGRESS. 

(From Acts xii. 25. to Acts xxi. 6.) 



THE FIRST PROGRESS. 
(Acts xiii. to Acts xiv. 27.) 



Acts xii. 25. And Barnabas and Saul returned to 
Antioch from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their 
ministry, that of carrying relief unto the brethren (those 
first believers) which dwelt in Judea (A. xi. S7-..30.) 
to meet the distress of that dearth which Agabus had 
predicted : 

And they took with them from Jerusalem John, 
whose surname was Mark, and whose mother, Mary, a 
person of some eminence among the Christians of Jeru- 
salem (H. P. 147, 8.), was sister to Barnabas. 

Barnabas himself so surnamed (Son of Consolation) by 
the apostles (his original name having been Joses,) 
was a Levite, of the country of Cyprus ; whose disin- 
terested generosity is duely recorded, as worthy of 
especial remark, A. iv. 36, 7« 

A. xiii. 1. Now there were in the church that 
was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers ; as Bar- 
nabas, and Simeon that w T as called Niger, and Lucius of 
Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with 
Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 



12 FIRST APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

Acts xiii. 2. As they ministered to the Lord in 
fasting and prayer, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me 
Barnabas and Saul, for the extraordinary work of 
preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, to which I 
have expressly called them. 

3. And when on a solemn day appointed for the 
purpose they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
on the two apostles, they after that special ordination 
sent them away on their great errand. 

4. So they, Barnabas and Saul, being sent forth by 
the Holy Ghost, departed from Antioch. 



Outline of the First Progress. 

The places to which they travelled, with the principal 
events, may be traced in the following sketch or sum- 
mary. 

A. xiii. From Antioch to Seleucia ; thence to the 
isle of Cyprus, v. 4., where at Salamis they preach, 
v. 5. : at Paphos they meet with Elymas the sorcerer : 
Sergius Paulus, the governor, v. 7»> is converted, and 
Saul now takes the name of Paul, v. 9. 

From Paphos, to Perga in Pamphylia, v. 13., where 
John- Mark leaves them : from Perga to Antioch in Pi- 
sidia, v. 14., where Paul preaches in the synagogue, 
vv. 16... 41. ; the effects of it on the proselytes and the 
Gentiles, and on the Jews, to v. 50. 

They next go to Iconium, v. 51., and are driven 
away, xiv. 5., by persecution of the Jews. 

They now first visit Lystra, xiv. 6., where Paul 
healeth the cripple ; its extraordinary consequences, to 
v. 18. 

From Lystra, driven away by Jews (of Antioch and 
Iconium), who stoned Paul apparently to death, they 



OF BARNABAS AND PAUL. 13 

go next to Derbe, unmolested there, v. 21., in preach- 
ing the word. 

Thence return to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, to 
confirm the disciples, ordain elders, &c, to v. 23. 

Through Pisidia into Pamphylia, to Perga and then 
to Attalia ; from thence finally to Antioch in Syria, the 
Gentile metropolis, close of ch. xiv. 



Acts xiii. 4. Barnabas and Saul then departed from 
Antioch, and went first to the city of Seleucia ; and 
from thence they sailed to the isle of Cyprus, the na- 
tive country of Barnabas (A. iv. 36.), where soon after 
the martyrdom of Stephen the gospel had been preached 
to none but unto the Jews only, A. xi. 19. 

5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached 
the word of God (first, as usual) in the synagogues of 
the Jews ; and they had also John surnamed Mark, 
sister's son to Barnabas, for their minister and attendant. 

6. And when they had gone through the isle unto 
Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, 
a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus : 

7. Which was with the proconsular governor of the 
country, Sergius Paulus, a man of good understanding ; 
who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear 
the word of God. 

8. But Elymas the Sorcerer (for so is his name by 
interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away 
the governor from the faith. 

9. Then Saul, who from this time took the Roman 
name of Paul after the proconsul, filled with the Holy 
Ghost, set his eyes on him, 

10. And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, 
thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, 
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? 



14 GENTILES NOW FIRST CONVERTED, 

Acts xiii. 11. And now, behold, the hand of the 
Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing 
the sun for a season. 

And immediately there fell on him a mist and a 
darkness ; and he went about, seeking some to lead him 
by the hand. 

12. Then the governor, when he saw what was thus 
miraculously done, instantly believed, being indeed 
astonished at the evidence of truth thus given to the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



In this conversion of Sergius Paulus, we see the frst 

fruits of the heathen, converted from the Gentile 

state to faith in the gospel without the intervention of 

his being first a proselyte to the law : he had been till 

now an idolatrous Gentile. 

Cornelius, on the other hand, A. ix. 1, 2., was a 
proselyte in the first instance, and the earliest proselyte 
that became a convert to the gospel, excepting only the 
eunuch from Ethiopia, A. viii. 27. 

Thus we see (and both, in the persons of Romans, a 
centurion, and a governor,) the two classes of grada- 
tion observed in dispensing the blessings of the gospel ; 
when, A. xi. 18. "God to the Gentiles also granted 
repentance unto life." Cornelius was a proselyte, 
Sergius Paulus was an unproselyted heathen, when they 
were respectively converted. 



A. xiii. 13. Now when Paul and his company had 
set sail from Paphos in that island, they landed on the 
coast of Pamphylia and proceeded to Perga ; and there 
John- Mark departing from them, returned to Jerusalem, 
to his maternal home, (xii. 12.) having apparently not 



BY PAUL AND BARNABAS. 15 

counted the cost of so distant and, it might be, so dan- 
gerous a journey, as this now seemed likely to prove. 

Acts xiii. 14. But when they departed from Perga, 
they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the 
synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down in the 
place set apart for strangers. 

15. And after the reading of the law and the 
prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, 
saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of 
exhortation for the people, say on. 

16. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his 
hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, (i. e. 
devout Gentiles, or proselytes,) give audience. 

17. The God of this people of Israel chose our 
fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as 
strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm 
brought he them out of it. 

18. And about the time of forty years suffered he 
their manners in the wilderness. 

19. And when he had destroyed seven nations in 
the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by 
lot. 

20. And after that he gave to them judges, about the 
space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the 
prophet. 

21. And afterwards they desired a king: and God 
gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of 
Benjamin, by the space of forty years. 

22. And when he had removed him, he raised up 
unto them David to be their king : to whom also he 
gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son 
of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil 
all my will. 

23. Of this man's seed hath God, according to his 
promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus : 



16 FIRST APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

Acts xiii. 24. When John had first preached, be- 
fore his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the 
people of Israel. 

25. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom 
think ye that I am ? I am not he : but, behold, there 
cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not 
worthy to loose. 

26. Men and brethren, children of the stock of 
Abraham, and whosoever among you fear God, (i. e. 
all ye devout Gentiles, now present,) to you is the word 
of this salvation sent. 

27. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their 
rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices 
of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they 
have fulfilled them in condemning him. 

28. And though they found no cause of death in 
him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. 

29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written 
of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him 
in a sepulchre. 

30. But God raised him from the dead : 

31. And he was seen many days of them which 
came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are 
his witnesses unto the people. 

32. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how 
that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 

33. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their 
children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again ; as it 
is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, 
this day have I begotten thee. 

34. And as concerning that he raised him up from 
the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said 
on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. 

35. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou 
shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 



OF BARNABAS AND PAUL. 17 

Acts xiii. 36. For David, after he had served his 
own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and 
was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption : 

37. But he, whom God raised again, saw no cor- 
ruption. 

38. Be it known unto you therefore, men and 
brethren, that through this man is preached unto you 
the forgiveness of sins : 

39. And by him all that believe are justified from 
all things, from which ye could not be justified by the 
law of Moses. 

40. Beware therefore, lest that come upon yon, 
which is spoken of in the prophets ; 

41. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish : 
for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall 
in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. 

42. And as they were going out of the synagogue 
(see Note), they (several of those present) besought 
the apostles, that these words might be preached to 
them the next sabbath. 

43. Now when the congregation was broken up, 
many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul 
and Barnabas : 

— those names are now for the first time placed in 

that order — 
who, speaking to them, persuaded them to hold fast the 
gracious offer of salvation which God had thus made. 

44. And the next sabbath day came almost the 
whole city together to hear the word of God. 

45. But when the Jews (the great body of them) 
saw the multitudes thus assembled, they were filled 
with envy, and spake against those things which were 
spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. 

46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, 
It was necessary that the word of God should in this 

c 



18 GENTILES HERE LARGELY CONVERTED 

city first have been spoken to you, and so it hath been : 
but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves un- 
worthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. 

— now meaning not proselytes only, but others 
generally, even idolatrous Gentiles : in that lay the 
great boldness now shown by the two apostles. 

And here, at Antioch in Pisidia, let us contemplate, 
after the individual case of Sergius Paulus, xiii. 12., 
the first great harvest of the conversion of the heathens, 
without the intervening stage of their having been pro- 
selytes previously. 



Acts xiii. 47. For so hath the Lord commanded 
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, 
that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the 
earth. 

48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were 
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord : and as many 
as were ordained to eternal life believed. 

49. And the word of the Lord was published, ge- 
nerally now, throughout all that region. 

50. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the devout 
women, especially those of rank amongst them (see 
Note), and the chief men of the city, and raised perse- 
cution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them 
out of their coasts. 

51. But they shook off the dust of their feet against 
them, and came unto Iconium. 

52. And the disciples whom they left in Antioch 
(of Pisidia) were filled with joy, and with the Holy 
Ghost : thus not only receiving present confirmation in 
the faith, but being endowed also with spiritual gifts 
for their support and farther illumination in it. 



BY PAUL AND BARNABAS. 19 

And here, from the high importance of the subject, 
be it again remarked, that the first Christian church, 
gathered (in part) from among the idolatrous Gentiles, 
was at Antioch in Pisidia. 



Acts xiv. 1. And it came to pass in Iconium, 
whither they fled from the persecution at Antioch, that 
Paul and Barnabas went both together into the syna- 
gogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude 
both of the Jews and also of the Greek proselytes be- 
lieved. 

2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gen- 
tiles, and made their minds evil affected against the 
brethren. 

3. A considerable time therefore abode they speak- 
ing boldly in the Lord, who gave testimony to the 
truth of his gracious gospel, and granted signs and 
wonders to be done by their hands. 

4. But the multitude of the city was divided : and 
part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. 

5. And when there was an assault made (rather, a 
plan formed) both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews 
with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone 
them, 

6. They were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra 
first, and afterwards (vv. 20, 1.) to Derbe, cities of Ly- 
caonia, and unto the region that lieth round about. 

7. And there — at Lystra — they preached the 
gospel. 



At this very time, it appears from A. xvi. 1., Timothy, 
as well as Lois and Eunice, his grandmother and his 

c 2 



20 FIRST APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

mother (2 Tim. i. 5.), must have been converted to the 
Christian faith, H. P. 182, 3., in the city of Lystra. 

And here be it remarked, that from the nature of the 
case there can be no necessity to suppose Timothy more 
than fourteen years old when now converted : an age 
which, though far from absolutely required by the later 
dates on our scheme maintained for the two epistles ad- 
dressed to him, will yet most happily agree with those 
texts which there allude to his youth, 1 Tim. iv. 12., 
ch. v. 1 , 2., and 2 Tim. ii. 22. That extent of attain- 
ments at the age of fourteen which Josephus, it is well 
known, records of himself, affords probability enough to 
any such progress in sacred learning as may here be attri- 
buted to Timothy at that early age ; especially when 
we are told, 2 Tim. iii, 15., that the holy scriptures, of 
the Old Testament, were known to him from a child. 



Acts xiv. 8. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, 
impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's 
womb, who never had walked : 

9. The same man heard Paul speak : who sted- 
fastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith 
to be healed, 

10. Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy 
feet. And he leaped and walked. 

11. And when the people saw what Paul had done, 
they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Ly- 
caonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness 
of men. 

12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, 
Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 

— . by which order of the names (i. e. Barnabas and 
Paul), the next mention of them also, in v. 14. seems 
to be influenced. 



OF PAUL AND BARNABAS. 21 

Acts xiv. 13. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was 
before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the 
gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 

14. Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, 
heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the 
people, crying out, 

15. And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things ? 
We also are men of like infirmities with you, and 
preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities 
unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and 
the sea, and all things that are therein : 

16. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk 
in their own ways. 

17. Nevertheless he left not himself without wit- 
ness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, 
and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
gladness. 

18. And with these sayings scarce restrained they 
the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. 

19. And there came thither certain Jews from An- 
tioch (in Pisidia) and from Iconium, who persuaded 
the people now in the other extreme, and, having stoned 
Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been 
dead. 

20. Howbeit, as the disciples (and among these 
perhaps the young and affectionate Timothy, 2 Tim. 
iii. 10, 11., H. P. 182, 3.) stood round about him, he 
rose up, restored at once by divine power to health, and 
came into the city (of Lystra) : and the next day he 
departed with Barnabas to Derbe. 

21. And when they had preached the gospel to 
that city, and had taught many, 

— without any hindrance there, H. P. 182., pro- 
bably aided by the influence of Gains, himself then 

c 3 



22 FIRST APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, ETC. 

converted, Rom. xvi. 23., Acts xx. 4. ; vide Gaius 

in the Index, — 
they returned again even to Lystra now without fear, 
and to Iconium, and Antioch, 

Acts xiv. 22. Confirming the souls of the disciples 
(of Timothy among the rest), and exhorting them to 
continue in the faith, and that we must through much 
tribulation enter into the kingdom of God, 

23. And when they had ordained elders for them in 
every church, and had prayed with fasting, they (the 
two apostles) commended them to the Lord, on whom 
they had fixed their belief. 

24. And after they had thus passed throughout 
Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. 

25. And when they had preached the word in Perga, 

— which apparently they had not done, when they 
first passed through that place, A. xiii. 13, 14. — 

they went down into Attalia, that maritime city of 
Pamphylia, at which they must have landed on their 
way, A. xiii., from Paphos to Perga : 

26. And thence sailed homeward again to Antioch 
in Syria, from whence they had been recommended to 
the grace of God for the great work which they had 
thus wonderfully fulfilled. 

27- And when they were come to that city, and 
had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all 
that God had done by their hands, and how he had 
opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles also, 

— as well those who were already proselytes to the 
law of Moses, as those who had been heathens entirely up 
to that time, or in one word, idolatrous Gentiles. 

28. And there, at Antioch, the metropolis of Gen- 
tile Christianity, they abode long time with the disciples. 

Thus ends the first apostolic progress of Paul and 
Barnabas. 



PRIVATE JOURNEY OF PAUL AND BARNABAS. 23 

PRIVATE JOURNEY OF PAUL AND BARNABAS WITH 
TITUS, TO JERUSALEM. 

During the long time (not less than three years) 
that Paul and Barnabas abode with the disciples at An- 
tioch, it seems highly probable at least (H. P. 100, 
101.), if not demonstrably true, for reasons which will 
be more fully assigned in another place (Appendix A), 
that they might go up to Jerusalem, and return to An- 
tioch, at some interval before the journey (recorded in 
A. xv.) took place which produced the apostolic decree. 

In that belief, and on the grounds alluded to, the 
following addition, from the Epistle to the Galatians, 
is here made to the sacred narrative of the Acts. But 
inasmuch as the passage in the original confessedly la- 
bours under some obscurity from the brevity as well as 
embarrassed style in which several facts of importance 
are crowded together ; instead of presenting the text 
alone, and subjoining a comment to it, a free and com- 
prehensive paraphrase is here exhibited, as at once better 
developing the meaning of the apostle. 

Galat. ii. 1...10. 

1. Then fourteen years after my conversion, I went 
up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus 
also with me, a young man and a converted Gentile. 

— Whatever knowledge of Titus in the first stage of 
his ministerial connection with Paul can be gained or 
reasonably inferred from the epistles, will be found 
elsewhere. Icicle Titus in the Index. 

2, And I went up directed by especial revelation 
to announce to the brethren there the wider province 
of apostolic labour which we had recently undertaken ; 
and with the view to secure their right understanding 

c 4 



v 24< PRIVATE JOURNEY OF PAUL AND BARNABAS. 

in the matter, I communicated to them that gospel 
which in its immunity from the Jewish law (H. P. 101.) 
I preach among the Gentiles. But this communication 
was made privately (or separately) to them of high 
rank and repute, and not in a public assembly, for fear 
of any uproar arising, which might invalidate my past 
and frustrate my future preaching : 

Gal. ii. 3. (but far from being so defeated, when it 
was afterwards vehemently urged as a point for conces- 
sion, that Titus should be circumcised, I maintained on 
principle, and with success, his exemption, as being a 
Greek, from any such token of bondage.) 

4. And the better to insure my great object of 
apostolical unanimity, 1 observed that precaution of 
private address ; necessary as it was on account of false 
brethren (Judaising Christians) unawares intruding, 
who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we 
have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into 
bondage of the law : 

5. To whom, when they made the attempt to gain 
their point, we gave place by subjection, no, not for an 
hour ; that the truth of the Gospel in its fulness and 
freedom might continue unimpaired with you and with 
all the Gentiles. 

G. And even from those brethren, on the other 
hand, who had reputation and consequence in the 
church — whatsoever they were, it makes no matter to 
me : God accepteth no man's person — I gained nothing 
in the way of knowledge or of authority : those persons, 
I say, of high repute added nothing to me in either 
way. (See Note.) 

7- But on the contrary indeed, having clearly seen, 
from the whole of my late career as an apostle, that 
tire gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto 
me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter ; 



PETER REBUKED AT ANTIOCH. 25 

Gal. ii. 8. (For he that wrought effectually in Peter 
to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was 
mighty in me towards the Gentiles :) 

9. When James (surnamed the Less), Cephas (that 
is, Peter), and John, who were considered to be pillars 
of the church, all three being then present, had recog- 
nised the peculiar trust graciously committed to my 
care, they cordially gave to me and Barnabas the right 
hands of fellowship ; that we should go unto the 
heathen generally, and they unto the circumcision as 
before. 

10. Only they requested, that on our return to 
Antioch, and while occupied among the Gentiles, we 
should not forget the poor brethren at Jerusalem with 
their peculiar claims on our charity : the same thing 
also which I have since then been forward to do. 



PETER REBUKED AT ANTIOCH. 

The intercourse betwixt Antioch (the great city of 
the East) and Jerusalem appears to have been on all 
accounts very frequent ; and as a matter therefore of 
no unusual occurrence, it is next mentioned by Paul, in 
writing to the Galatians, that Peter went down soon 
after this time to Antioch. Even yet the conviction of 
that apostle's mind was not settled with completeness 
and certainty as to the full and free admission of the 
Gentiles to the benefits of the Christian covenant. And 
in pursuance therefore of his argument, Paul continues 
the narrative thus : 

Gal at. ii. 11... 14. 

11. But when not long after this conference of ours 
at Jerusalem (where I rather declared to the apostles 



26 PUBLIC MISSION OF PAUL AND BARNABAS 

what I had done, than consulted even them on its being 
done rightly,) Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him 
to the face, because he was to be blamed. 

Gal. ii. 12. For on his first arrival there, and before 
certain persons (Jewish believers), came with some mes- 
sage from James (or pretence of one, as A. xv. 1. 24.) 
about ceremonial conformity, Peter had never scrupled 
to eat with the converted Gentiles : but after those 
persons came, he withdrew again, and separated himself, 
fearing to displease those of the circumcision. 

13. And the other believing Jews dissembled like- 
wise with him ; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried 
away with their timidity and dissimulation. 

14. But when I, the determined and authorised 
preacher of Gentile freedom, saw that they walked not 
uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said 
unto Peter before them all, If thou being a Jew by birth 
canst yet live (as thou hast done lately) after the man- 
ner of Gentiles, in disregarding the distinction of meats, 
and not as do the Jews (H. P. 106.), who observe that 
distinction ; why wouldest thou now compel the Gentile 
brethren to live as do the Jews, or else, to please these 
zealots, withdraw thyself from their company ? 



PUBLIC MISSION OF PAUL AND BARNABAS TO 
JERUSALEM. 

Acts xv. 1. And yet, after all this, certain men 
which came down from Judea to Antioch, assuming 
authority on that account (though not in any way au- 
thorised, as it afterwards appears, v. 24.), set about to 
teach the brethren in their stricter way, and said, Ex- 
cept ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye 
cannot be saved by the gospel. 



TO JERUSALEM. QTJ 

Acts xv. 2. When therefore Paul and Barnabas, 
taking just offence at this, had no small dissension and 
disputation with them, it was generally determined that 
Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go 
up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this 
question. 

3. And being brought on their way by the church, 
they passed (that route by land being purposely taken) 
through Phoenicea, by Sidon and Tyre, and through 
Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles; and 
by those tidings now told in the full extent, they caused 
great joy unto all the brethren. 

4. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they 
were received of the church and of the apostles and 
elders, and they declared all tilings which God had 
done by his blessing on their labours. 

5. But here again, on their errand being publickly 
known, there rose up certain of the sect of the Phari- 
sees who believed, saying that it was needful to circum- 
cise the Gentile converts and command them to keep 
the law of Moses, 

6. And the apostles and elders came together for 
to consider of this matter. 

7. And when there had been much disputing, Peter 
rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know 
how that a good while ago God made choice among us, 
that the Gentiles (Cornelius, with his kinsmen and 
near friends, A. x.) by my mouth should hear the word 
of the gospel, and believe. 

8. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them 
witness, giving to them the Holy Ghost, even as he did 
unto us ; 

9. And put no difference between us and them, 
purifying their hearts by faith. 

10. Now therefore, why would you try the forbear- 



28 PUBLIC MISSION OF PAUL AND BARNABAS 

ance of God, in putting a yoke upon the neck of the 
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to 
bear ? 

Acts xv. 11. But we believe, that through the free 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even 
as they ; and not otherwise. 

12. Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave 
audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles 
and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by 
them. 

~— The work had now proceeded much farther than 
it had done with Peter ; Cornelius was a proselyte (A. 
x. 2.) when he was converted. 

13. And after they had held their peace, James 
(surnamed the Less) answered, saying, Men and bre- 
thren, hearken unto me : 

14. Simeon (i. e. Simon Peter) hath declared how 
God at the first (i. e. beginning with Cornelius) did 
visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his 
name. 

15. And to this agree the words of the prophets ; 
as it is written, (Amos ix. 11, 12.) 

16. " After this I will return, and will build again 
the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down ; and I 
will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up : 

17. That the residue of men might seek after the 
Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom (as true wor- 
shippers) my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth 
all these things." 

18. Known unto God are all his works (and evi- 
dently so, this calling of the Gentiles) from the begin- 
ning of the world. 

19. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not 



TO JERUSALEM. 29 

with burdensome rites them which from among the 
Gentiles are now turned unto God : 

Acts xv. 20. But that we write unto them, that 
they abstain from pollutions of idols, t. e. from feasting 
on things offered in heathen sacrifice ; from fornication, 
as being now under the restraint of a purer morality ; 
and from things strangled, and from blood, that so the 
Jewish believers may without offence or scruple eat at 
the same table with them. 

21. In those latter points conformity must be ex- 
acted ; for Moses of old time hath in every city them 
that preach him, being read in the synagogues every 
sabbath day. 

22. Then pleased it the apostles and elders with 
the whole church, to choose men of their own company 
and send them (for additional authority) to Antioch 
with Paul and Barnabas ; namely, Judas surnamed 
Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren : 

23. And they wrote letters by them after this man- 
ner ; 

The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting 
unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch 
and Syria and Cilicia : 

— here be it remarked, that this apostolic decree was 
addressed, and would be delivered, in the first instance, 
to the Syrian and Cilician churches alone : but where- 
ever Paul and Silas afterwards went either to confirm 
other churches, as at Derbe and Lystra, xvi. 1, 2., or 
to the work of new conversion, as in Phrygia and Ga- 
latia, v. 6., the provisions of the decree, having been 
once solemnly ratified, would naturally find a place in 
the course of their teaching, without any reference to 
the original dispute, or to the authority by which it was 
settled. — 



30 PUBLIC MISSION OF PAUL AND BARNABAS 

Acts xv. 24. Forasmuch as we have heard, that 
certain which went out from us have troubled you with 
words, unsettling your minds, saying, Ye must be cir- 
cumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no 
such commandment : 

25. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with 
one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our be- 
loved Barnabas and Paul, 

26. Men that have hazarded their lives for the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

27. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who 
shall also tell you the same things by mouth. 

28. For it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost, 
and to us, 

— that is, the inspiration of the Almighty directed 

the council — 
to lay upon you no greater burden than these ne- 
cessary things ; 

29. That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and 
from blood, and from things strangled, and from the 
moral impurity of fornication : from which if ye keep 
yourselves, ye will do well. Fare ye well. 

30. So, on the business being closed, when they 
were allowed to depart, they came (by Cassarea pro- 
bably and then by sea) to Antioch : and when they 
had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the 
epistle : 

31. Which when the brethren there had read, they 
rejoiced for the consolation thus administered. 

32. And Judas and Silas, being prophets also (gifted 
in sacred instruction) themselves, exhorted the brethren 
with many words, and confirmed them in the faith. 

33. And after they (the two messengers) had tar- 
ried there a space, they had leave given from the 



TO JERUSALEM. 3] 

brethren to go in peace to those who had sent them on 
that mission. 

Acts xv. 34. Notwithstanding, it pleased Silas, in 
the prospect of greater usefulness, to abide there still. 

35. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, 
teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with 
many others also similarly engaged. 



m 



PART II. — continued. 

DEPARTURE FROM ANTIOCH ON THE SECOND 
GREAT PROGRESS. 

This second progress takes an extensive range, far 
and wide, before the return to Antioch with which it 
concludes. 

From the home circuit of Syria and Cilicia, A. xv. 41., 
Paul with Silas passes on into Lycaonia again, xvi. 1 . ..3., 
and now, having the young Timothy added to their 
party, Paul and Silas through Phrygia and Galatia 
proceed to Troas, v. 8. : from that place, where Luke 
the historian joins them, by divine admonition they 
cross the Hellespont, and so into Macedonia, vv. 9... 12. 

At Philippi, after much rude persecution suffered by 
Paul and Silas, the miraculous conversion of the gaoler 
lays the foundation of the most pure and lovely of all the 
apostolical churches ; to the close of ch. xvi. 

Through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they come to 
Thessalonica, and from thence are driven by an uproar 
of the unbelieving Jews, xvii. 1...9. ; and from Berea 
(which has its peculiar praise) Paul is in like manner 
driven away, 10... 14. 

Paul arrives at Athens, is encountered by the philo- 
sophers, and delivers a remarkable discourse on Mars's 
Hill ; to the close of ch. xvii. He leaves Athens, and 
proceeds to Corinth, where he finds Aquila and Pri- 
scilla, lately from Rome, with whom he abides and 
works. A. xviii. Silas and Timothy come to him 
with good tidings, the one from Berea, the other from 
Thessalonica, vv. 1...5. 



DEPARTURE FROM ANTIOCH, ETC. 33 

111 received by the Jews, Paul turns unto the Gen- 
tiles, and, encouraged by a divine vision, preaches with- 
out fear : before Gallio, the governor, he is accused by 
the Jews, who are baffled in their wicked attempt, vv. 6 
...17. 

After a long and successful stay at Corinth, on his 
voyage to the coast of Syria, the apostle, now on his 
voyage back, hastily visits Ephesus ; from Cesarea goes 
up to Jerusalem, and then returns for a season to 
Antioch, vv. 18... 22. 



Acts xv. 36. And after certain days Paul said unto 
Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every 
city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and 
see how they do. 

— That alone was the limited object apparently of 
the journey now proposed. 

37. And Barnabas determined to take with them 
John, whose surname was Mark. 

— He was now at Antioch, probably having gone 
down from Jerusalem on the late occasion along with 
his kinsman Barnabas. 

38. But Paul thought not good to take him with 
them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, (A. 
xiii. 13.) and went not with them to the work. 

39. And the contention was so sharp between them, 
that they departed asunder one from the other. 

— " Acting, however, as wise and sincere men would 
act," each devoting his best endeavours to the common 
cause, they set forward on separate routes of apostolic 
labour. 

And so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus, 
his own native country, A. iv. 36., and where on the 

D 



34 SECOND APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

service of the gospel he had been Paul's companion 
before. A, xiii. 4. 



The name of Barnabas no where occurs again in the 
Acts : in the Epistles he is repeatedly mentioned, al- 
ways honourably and with respect. Gal. ii. 1. 9. 13. 
1 Cor. ix. 6. 

From the latter passage we gather, that Barnabas, 
then engaged like Paul in the great Gentile mission, 
like him worked with his own hands for his maintenance ; 
though he and Paul, while so employed, might well have 
claimed exemption from any such necessity. 

The name of Mark-John appears afterwards, in the 
Christian service of Paul, Coloss. iv. 10., Philemon, 
ver. 24., and more remarkably so, 2 Tim. iv. 11. 



Acts xv. 40. Paul, on the other hand, chose Silas 
for his associate ; and departed from Antioch, being 
recommended by the brethren unto the gracious fa- 
vour of God. 

41. And he went first of all through Syria and Ci- 
licia, confirming the churches. 

— Those in Cilicia should seem to have been planted 
by Paul, ix. 30., on his return from Jerusalem to Tar- 
sus. 

xvi. 1. Then — in pursuance of the intention to re- 
visit the churches, announced, A. xv. 36. — he came 
to Derbe and Lystra : and, behold, a certain disciple 
(already here mentioned, ch. xiii. between vv. 7 an d &•) 
named Timothy, was there in the latter city, eminent 
for his early piety, whom Paul himself had converted 
(1 Tim. i. °2.) y the son of a certain woman Eunice, 
which was a Jewess and believed, along with her 



OF PAUL AND SILAS, WITH TIMOTHY. 35 

mother Lois. The unfeigned faith of both of them is 
recorded by Paul, in that affectionate address, 2TiM.i.5. 

But his father was a Greek by birth, not improbably, 
however, first a proselyte, and now a believer with the 
rest of his family. 

Acts xvi. 2. Which Timothy, then a mere youth, 
perhaps in his eighteenth year, was well reported of by 
the Christian brethren, not only at Lystra, but at Ico- 
nium also. 

3. From seeing this young man therefore qualified 
and disposed, as a son with the father, to serve with him 
ministerially in the gospel (Philip, ii. 22.) him would 
Paul have to go forth with him : but duely aware that, 
as a Gentile, Timothy would not be allowed for that 
purpose to bear him company into the synagogues, 
while from his mother being a Jewess, he might pro- 
perly be circumcised, Paul took and circumcised him, 
as well on that account and with that view, as espe- 
cially because of the Jews which were in those quarters ; 
for they knew all that his father was a Greek, and might 
else have reported Timothy as an uncircumcised Gentile. 



4. But as the Mosaic law with its ceremonial ob- 
ligations is here naturally called to mind, it should be 
told also, that as Paul and Silas went through the cities 
of Syria and Cilicia (xv. 41.) they did not fail to de- 
liver to them the decrees for to keep which were ordained 
expressly on their account (xv. 23.) by the apostles and 
elders at Jerusalem, H. P. 104. 

5. And so, being relieved from that troublesome 
question, those churches were established in the faith, 
and increased in number daily. 



6. Now, therefore, when in their farther progress — 

d 2 



36 SECOND APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

far beyond the first purpose, xv. 36, — Paul (attended 
by Timothy) and Silas had gone throughout Phrygia 
and the region of Galatia, — 

— Galatia now visited for t)\e first time — 

and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost as yet to 
preach the word in Asia (i. e. Lydian Asia, of which 
Ephesus was the capital, H. P. 37.) 

Acts xvi. 7. After they were come to Mysia, they 
assayed to go into Bithynia : but the Spirit suffered 
them not. (The cultivation of that vineyard was re- 
served for others, 1 Peter i. 1.) 

8. And they passing by the northern borders of 
Mysia came down to Troas. 

— A place, be it remarked, much more connected 
with the propagation of the Christian faith than might 
at first be supposed. Besides the beginning now made 
there, Paul visited Troas at three several times after- 
wards, 2 Cor. ii. 12., Acts xx. 5, 6., 2 Tim. iv. 13. 
Vide Troas in the Indexc 



Here let the reader pause ; and with solemn gratitude 
contemplate the apostolic transmission of the gospel now 
for the first time from the east to the west ; into the 
regions of Europe — " to Tubal and Javan and the 
isles afar off," as prophesied by Isaiah lxvi. 19. — and 
across that boundary which, according to the father of 
history, formed the grand division between Europe and 
the Grecian name on the one hand and all the Asiatic 
nations on the other. Herodotus, Clio, s. 4. 

In this place also, be it remarked, the historian of the 
Acts comes forward in his own person. Luke, probably, 
from all accounts, was a native of Antioch : and if so, 
since he appears to have been a convert when Paul now 



WITH SILAS AND TIMOTHY. 3J 

found him sojourning at Troas, we may suppose him to 
haye been previously converted at Antioch by Barnabas 
or Paul on some of those occasions, A. xi. 22... 30., xii. 
25., xhi. 1...3., xiv. 26... 28., which he himself has so 
particularly related. 

And may not the we (which follows here in v. 10.) 
coming in so naturally, be taken for an oblique intima- 
tion that Paul and Luke had been acquainted with one 
another some time before ; and if so, much more likely 
at Antioch than at any other place ? 



Acts xvi. 9. And a vision appeared to Paul in the 
night : There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed 
him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us, 
— on whom your labour in the Lord will not be lost. 



On the subject of divine visions, vide H. P. 217, $• 
and consult the following passages, A. xviii. 9, 10., 
xxii. 17., xxiii. 11., xxvii. 23. For the early promise 
of future revelation also to be in that way conveyed, 
vide xxvi. 16. At xviii. 9? 10. occasion will arise for 
some particular remarks in the Appendix C. 



10. And after Paul had seen the vision, immediately 
we endeavoured (for Luke joined his company at 
Troas) to go into Macedonia forthwith, assuredly ga- 
thering, that the Lord had called us for to preach the 
gospel unto them in that country. 



Yes : Luke also was now called to preach that gos- 
pel, of which he was afterwards by Divine Providence 
ordained to become the historian. 

-d 3 



38 

Acts xvi. 11. Therefore loosing from Troas, we 
came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the 
next day to Neapolis ; 

1&. And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief 
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony : and we 
were in that city abiding a few days. 

13. And on the sabbath we went out of the city by 
a river side where prayer was wont to be made, (there 
being no synagogue in that city;) and we sat down and 
spake unto the devout women which resorted thither. 

14. And one of them in particular, a certain woman 
named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, 
which (as a proselyte) worshipped the true God, 
listened to us ; whose heart the Lord opened, that she 
attended to the things which were spoken by Paul. 

15. And after she was baptized, and her household, 
she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be 
faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide 
there. And she constrained us to do so. 

16. And it came to pass, as we went to the place 
of prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of 
divination met us, which brought her masters much 
gain by soothsaying : 

17. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, 
saying, These men are the servants of the most High 
God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 

18. And this she did many days. But Paul, being 
grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee 
in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And 
he came out the same hour. 

19. And when her masters saw that the hope of 
their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, as the 
leaders of our party, and drew them into the market- 
place unto the rulers, 






WITH SILAS AND TIMOTHY. 39 

Acts xvi. 20. And brought them to the magistrates, 
saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble 
our city, 

21. And teach customs, which are not lawful for us 
to receive, neither to observe, being Romans, i.e. 
originally colonists from Italy. (More of this, on the 
Epistle to the Philippians.) 

22. And the multitude rose up together against 
them : and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and 
commanded to beat them with rods. 

23. And when they had laid many stripes upon 
them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to 
keep them safely : 

24. Who, having received such a charge, thrust 
them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in 
the stocks. 

25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and 
sang praises unto God ; and the prisoners (in the other 
wards) listened to them. 

26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so 
that the foundations of the prison were shaken : and 
immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's 
bands were loosed. 

27. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of 
his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out 
his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing 
that the prisoners had been fled. 

28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do 
thyself no harm : for we are all here. 

29. Then the jailor called for a light, and sprang 
in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, 

30. And brought them out and said, Sirs, what 
must I do to be saved ? 

d 4 



40 SECOND APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

Acts xvi. 31. And they said. Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house- 
hold. 

3°2. And they spake unto him the word of the 
Lord, and to all that were in his house. 

33. And he took them the same hour of the night, 
and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he and all 
his, straightway. 

34. And when he had brought them into his house, 
he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God 
with all his household, 

35. And when it was day, the magistrates 

— either from a misgiving that they had acted with 
unjust severity, or being already informed of the 
amazing events which had taken place in the prison ■ — 
sent the Serjeants, saying, Let those men go. 

36. And the keeper of the prison told this saying 
to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go : now 
therefore depart, and go in peace. 

37. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us 
openly uncondemned, being Romans (i. e. Roman 
citizens), and have cast us into prison : and now would 
they thrust us out privily ? Nay verily ; but let them 
come themselves, and fetch us out. 

38. And the Serjeants told these words unto the 
magistrates ; and they feared when they heard that 
they (Silas as well as Paul) were Roman citizens. 

39. And the magistrates came and besought them, 
and brought them out, and desired them to depart out 
of the city, — to prevent farther tumult. 

40. And they went out of the prison, and entered 
into the house of Lydia : and when they had seen the 
brethren (who could not then be very numerous), they 
comforted them, and departed from Philippi. 



WITH SILAS AND TIMOTHY. 41 

And here it may deserve remark, as the narrative 
after this proceeds in the third person, they, and not 
we, that Luke must now have remained at Philippi : ac- 
cordingly, A. xx. 5., he is found there again, then and 
not before re-appearing in his own person. This will 
not seem extraordinary, if we consider, that as Luke 
had already taken some part in the work of teaching 
there, A. xvi. 13., he might very properly be left behind, 
on purpose to give farther instruction to the Philip- 
pians in the truths of the gospel. Then, too, Luke the 
Gentile (H. P. 148, 9.) would of course be the more 
acceptable to the brethren there, who were all Gentile 
converts : while, on the other hand, if he was a Gentile, 
as we suppose, then not being qualified for admission 
into the Jewish synagogues, he could not on this account 
have gone with Paul as his privileged attendant. That, 
we have seen, was hereafter to be the proper office of 
Timothy. 

That from his residence at Troas where Paul found 
him, (A. xvi. 10.) a place commercially connected with 
Philippi, he who is elsewhere called " the beloved 
physician," (Coloss. iv. 14.) might have become pre- 
viously known to the Philippians in that character ; 
may be forgiven at least as an innocent conjecture. 



Acts xvii. 1, Now when they (Paul, Silas, and Ti- 
mothy) had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia 
without stopping in either place, they came to Thessa- 
lonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews : 

— the synagogue which they expected to find, there 
being none in the other two cities. 

2. And Paul, in the first instance, as his manner was, 
(A. xiii. 46., H. P. 158.) went in unto them, and three 
sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 



42 SECOND APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 

Acts xvii. 3. Opening and alledging, that Christ 
(i. e. the expected Messiah) ought (according to the 
prophecies) to have suffered and risen again from the 
dead ; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is 
that Messiah. 

4. And some of them (the Jews) believed and con- 
sorted with Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks 
(or proselytes) a great multitude, and of the chief 
women not a few, (being proselytes, as elsewhere, A. 
xiii. 50., xvii. 12.) 



Upon the whole, Paul must have continued at Thes- 
salonica more than three weeks, the time apparently 
given by the sacred historian. " For though he re- 
sorted to the synagogue only three sabbath days, yet he 
remained in the city and in the exercise of his ministry 
among the Gentile citizens much longer ; and until the 
success of his preaching had provoked the Jews to ex- 
cite the tumult and insurrection by which he was driven 
away." H. P. 158. 

On another ground the apostle's longer stay in Thes- 
salonica may fairly be established. What we read else- 
where of liberality from Philippi sent to him " once and 
again" (Philip, iv. 16.) while in that city, would evi- 
dently require a greater space of time for its accomplish- 
ment ; not to mention that during his continuance in 
Thessalonica (1 Thess. ii. 9.) he " laboured night and 
day," that to the believers there he might not be 
chargeable, a consideration which alone would clearly 
justify the same inference. — Vide Dr. Benson's His- 
tory of the first planting of the Christian Religion, 
Sfc., vol. ii. p. 99. 



A. xvii. 5. But the Jews which believed not, moved 



WITH SILAS AND TIMOTHY. 43 

with envy, took unto them certain worthless fellows of 
the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the 
city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, in 
which Paul and his companions were entertained, and 
sought to bring them out to the people. 

Acts xvii. 6. And when they found them not then 
in the house, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto 
the rulers of the city, crying, These men that have 
turned the world upside down, are come hither also ; 

7. Whom Jason hath entertained : and these all 
act contrary to the decrees of Cesar, saying that there 
is another king, one Jesus. 

8. And the unbelieving Jews alarmed the people 
and the rulers of the city, when they heard these 
things. 

9. And when the rulers had taken security of Jason 
and of the others, they let them go. 

— Of Jason, as afterwards the companion of Paul at 
Corinth, Rom. xvi. 21., vide H. P. 16. note. 

10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul 
and Silas by night unto Berea : who on coming thither, 
according to their custom, went into the synagogue of 
the Jews. 

11. These Jews were more noble, than those in 
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all 
readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, to 
see whether those things (the predictions of the Messiah 
as fulfilled in Jesus) were so or not. 

12. Therefore, being convinced by that search, 
many of them believed ; also of honourable women, 
which were G reeks, and of men, not a few. 

13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had know- 
ledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at 
Berea, they came thither, and stirred up the people. 



44 



PAUL AT ATHENS, 



Acts xvii. 14. And then immediately the brethren 
sent away Paul to the sea-coast, to take shipping there 
(see the Note) : but Silas and Timothy abode still at 
Berea. 

15. And they that conducted Paul by sea, brought 
him unto Athens : and receiving a commandment unto 
Silas and Timothy for to come to him with all speed, 
they departed. 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 



Singularly enough, the apostle is not represented in 
the following narrative as originally purposing to preach 
the tidings of salvation to " the wise men and disputers 
of this world" (1 Cor. i. 20.) at Athens ; which, be it 
remembered, had long ceased to rank high either in a 
political or a commercial light, retaining only its philo- 
sophical celebrity. 

Paul had only intended to stop in that city, till his 
two companions overtook him from Berea : observe, 
then, how justly in the result he appears to have esti- 
mated the unfitness of those proud Greeks who " sought 
after wisdom," to receive the doctrine of a pure theism 
with which he so beautifully began his discourse, much 
less to admit the humiliating and stirring truths of the 
gospel. 

A. xvii. 16. Now while Paul waited for Silas and 
Timothy at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, 
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 

17. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with 
the Jews and with the devout persons (?'. e. proselytes) 
and in the public square daily with them (any of the 
Athenians) that came in his way. 



IN HIS SECOND PROGRESS. 45 

Acts xvii. 18. Then certain philosophers of the 
Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And 
some said, What would this babbler say ? Other some, 
He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange deities : 
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resur- 
rection. 

19. And they took him, and brought him unto Are- 
opagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, 
whereof thou speakest, is ? 

20. For thou bringest certain strange things to our 
ears : we would know therefore what these things 
mean. 

21. (For all the Athenians and strangers which 
were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either 
to tell or to hear some new thing.) 

22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill 
(where the court of Areopagus was held) and said, Ye 
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are 
very much given to religious observances. 

23. For as I passed by, and surveyed the objects of 
your devotion, I found an altar with this inscription, To 
the unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly 
worship, him declare I unto you. 

24. God that made the world and all things therein, 
seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwell eth 
not in temples made with hands ; 

25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as 
though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, 
and breath, and all things ; 

26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men 
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- 
mined the times before appointed, and the bounds of 
their habitation ; 

27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they 



46 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 



might feel after him, and find him, though he be not 
far from every one of us : 

Acts xvii. 28. For in him we live, and move, and 
have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have 
said, For we are also his offspring. 

29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, 
we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's 
device. 

30. And the times of this ignorance God winked 
at ; but now commandeth all men every where to 
repent : 

31. Because he hath appointed a day in the which he 
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom 
he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance 
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 

32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the 
dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee 
again of this matter. 

33. So Paul departed from among them. 

34. Howbeit certain men (though not many) 
clave unto him, and believed: among the which was 
Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, 
and others with them. 



Though Paul left Berea in such haste that Silas and 
Timothy could not go along with him, yet he sent 
orders back, that they should follow him with all speed. 
Accordingly, Timothy came up to the apostle while he 
was yet at Athens : but Silas, it seems, in the work of 
an evangelist, thought good to tarry some time longer 
at Berea. Paul, in the mean while, from his anxiety for 
the young and persecuted converts at Thessalonica, had 



PAUL AT CORINTH. 47 

entertained serious thoughts of turning back to revisit 
them : but having been " hindered once and again," 
he chose rather when joined at Athens by Timothy 
(hitherto only the personal attendant of Paul) to be left 
alone there without his beloved society, and to send him 
instead, on that his first sacred mission, to establish and 
comfort the Thessalonian church. 

The different circumstances, first of the delay of Silas 
and Timothy, and then of their subsequent arrival (pro- 
bably together) from Macedonia at Corinth (A. xviii. 5.) 
may at once from these particulars, chiefly supplied by 
the apostle himself, (1 Thess. ii. 18., iii. 1, &. 5, 6.) 
be very readily understood. Vide Dr. Benson, vol. ii. 
pp. 112. 117., and H. P. 154, 5. 



Paul at Corinth, the first time : 
his different reception in that city. 

Acts xviii. 1. After these things Paul departed 
from Athens, and came to Corinth ; 

2. And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in 
Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla ; 
(because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to 
depart from Rome :) and came unto them. 

3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode 
with them, and wrought : for by their occupation they 
were tent-makers. 

4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, 
and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks whom he found 
there. 



At this period of the history, that is, very soon after 
the arrival of Paul at Corinth, and therefore at a 



48 PAUL AT CORINTH, 

date not long subsequent to his first visiting Galatia, 
(A. xvi. 6.) we may most probably fix 

the Epistle to the Galatians, 

occasioned by intelligence regarding them which had 
reached him at Corinth : and that epistle belongs to an 
early period of his apostolic authority, or he would not 
argue so very earnestly to establish it. He goes very 
much therefore into the principal events of his own per- 
sonal history, (Gal. i. 11... 24. ii. 1...14.) and power- 
fully demonstrates, that he was not a missionary from 
the church at Jerusalem, nor yet a disciple of the first 
apostles, but an immediate apostle of Christ himself by 
a divine revelation. 

In farther support of this opinion, that the Epistle to 
the Galatians was one of the very earliest date, some 
strong considerations will be found in another place. 
Vide Appendix B. 



Acts xviii. 5. And when Silas and Timothy were 
come from Macedonia with good tidings, the one from 
Berea, the other from Thessalonica, Paul was strongly 
affected by' their report (see the Note) ; and with the 
greater confidence now (aided by Silas and Timothy in 
that preaching, 2 Cor. i. 19.) testified to the Jews, 
that Jesus was Christ, the Messiah. 

6. And when they opposed themselves, and blas- 
phemed, Paul shook his raiment, and said unto them, — 

"in the severity of grief, not of anger," — 
Your blood be upon your own heads ; I am clean : 
from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. 

— - Compare with this, ch. xiii. 46. 

7. And he departed thence, from the synagogue 



IN HIS SECOND PROGRESS. 49 

where he had hitherto taught, and entered into a certain 
man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God 
(a Gentile convert), whose house joined hard to the 
synagogue. 

Acts xviii. 8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the 
synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household ; 
and many of the other Corinthians hearing believed, and 
were baptized. 



Here it may deserve remark, that Paul afterwards, on 
referring to the unhappy contentions at Corinth sub- 
sequent to this his sojourn there, rejoices to think, that 
while now among them he had generally abstained 
from baptizing with his own hands. 

1 Cor. i. 12. Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, 
and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. 

13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? 
or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? 

14. I thank God that I baptized none of you but 
Crispus (the ruler recently mentioned, A. xviii. 8.) 
and Gaius (who appears to have followed him from 
Derbe) ; 

15. Lest any should say that I had baptized in 
mine own name. 

17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach 
the gospel. 



Another remark here naturally occurs. If Paul 
himself in writing to the Corinthians afterwards speaks 
thus of his feelings at this critical time, 

cc I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much 

trembling," 1 Cor. ii. 3. 
we may well suppose miraculous encouragement to have 

E 



50 PAUL AT CORINTH, 

been the more necessary, for him to encounter so 
arduous a trial : the assurance of strength from above 
was graciously given to him. (On the subject of this 
vision and of the thorn in the Jlesh, as connected with 
it, vide Appendix C.) 

Acts xviii. 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the 
night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold 
not thy peace : 

10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on 
thee to hurt thee : for I have much people in this city. 

11. And he continued there a year and six months, 
teaching the word of God, now without fear, among 
them. 



During this stay of Paul at Corinth, 

the two Epistles to the Thessalonians 

were written, at the interval of some months at least 
betwixt the one and the other. It is shown, in H. P. 
\5% 3. that between the First Epistle and the history 
of the Acts the accordance in many points is circum- 
stantial and complete : and we have already from that 
Epistle, ii. 18., iii. 1, 2., derived clear information as 
to some important facts in regard to Silas and Timothy, 
necessary to supply at the close of Acts xvii. what 
otherwise must have been conjectured in vain. 

The Second Epistle seems to have been occasioned 
by some misapprehension of a passage in the First, 
which had come to the apostle's knowledge in the 
mean while : and the best illustration perhaps which 
the acknowledged obscurity of that subject admits, will 
be found in H. P. 160, 1. 163, 4, 5. 

Both the Epistles, by the names of Silas and Ti- 
mothy in the superscription, show, that those faithful 



IN HIS SECOND PROGRESS. 51 

companions were present with Paul at the time. And 
the First especially, it is remarked H. P. 153., speaks of 
their ministry at Thessalonica as a recent transaction. 
1 Thess. ii. 17. " We, brethren, being taken from you 
for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured 
the more abundantly to see your face with great de- 
sire." 



Acts xviii. 12. And when Gallio was the deputy of 
Achaia, and therefore residing in Corinth, the Jews 
made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and 
brought him to the judgment-seat, 

13. Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship 
God contrary to the law. 

14. And when Paul was now about to open his 
mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter 
of wrong or wicked mischief, O ye Jews, reason would 
that I should bear with you : 

15. But if it be a question of words and names, and 
of your law, look ye to it ; for I will be no judge of 
such matters. 

16. And he drave them, the Jews, from the judg- 
ment-seat. 

17. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief 
ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judg- 
ment-seat. And Gallio cared for none of these things. 



At this time Sosthenes, as the new ruler of the 
synagogue (and therefore clearly not now a Christian), 
taking the lead in the prosecution of Paul, might for 
that very cause, especially when the proconsul with in- 
dignation drave the Jewish accusers away, excite mo- 
mentary anger in the Corinthian populace, and thus be 

e 2 



52 PAUL, AT THE CLOSE OF 

subjected to that expression of their violence which 
Gallio did not think it worth his while to condemn. 

Supposing these to have been the first circumstances 
(certainly inauspicious enough) which are known about 
Sosthenes, still, during the " yet a good while," v. 18. 
that Paul after this tarried at Corinth, what should 
hinder this Sosthenes also (like Crispus before him, 
v. 8.) from becoming a convert to the gospel ? Or why 
might he not be one of those Jews converted by the 
sacred eloquence of Apollos, xviii. 28., after Paul's de- 
parture from that city? And if this might easily be 
so, then only let the frequent intercourse between 
Corinth and Ephesus be considered, and the appear- 
ance of his name at a later period in the superscription 
from Ephesus to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. i. 1., will be 
thought any thing but extraordinary ; nor would Paul 
himself with the less tender and earnest sympathy call 
Sosthenes " brother," because he also had been (in 
spirit) a persecutor first. 



Acts xviii. 18. And Paul after this (so completely 
did the sentence of Gallio protect him) tarried there 
without annoyance yet a good while, having been in- 
debted during part of that time to the brethren which 
came from Macedonia (i. e. from Philippi) for liberal 
contributions to his support. 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9. H. P. 
136, 7- 

He then on departing from Corinth took his leave 
there of the brethren in the Christian faith ; and was 
attended not only by Silas and Timothy, but also by 
Erastus, a Corinthian, as appears from xix. 22., and by 
" Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's 
companions in travel," mentioned like Erastus during 



HIS SECOND PROGRESS. 53 

his stay in Ephesus, xix. 29-, in the course of his third 
progress. 

On his main voyage to the coast of Syria, that after 
going up to Jerusalem he might return to Antioch, he 
now set sail, in the usual course of navigation bound 
for Ephesus, which he was then to visit hastily for the 
first time. 

It was from Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, 
that he sailed, accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla, 
after having shorn his head there, in pursuance of a 
vow which he had to fulfil. 



At Ephesus, the first time, but only on his passage. 

AcTsxviii. 19. So when he came to Ephesus, where 
he was prepared to leave his two friends behind, he 
himself, limited in the time of his stay, took the first 
opportunity to enter into the synagogue, and to reason 
with the Jews, whom he found there. 

20. When those Jews, with a welcome which he did 
not always receive, desired him to tarry longer, he could 
not consent to do so ; 

21. But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all 
means keep this feast (probably, the passover) that 
cometh, in Jerusalem : but I will return (as indeed he 
did, xix. 1.) again unto you, if God will. And so he 
sailed from Ephesus. 

22. And when after a good voyage he had landed 
at Cesarea, and gone up, that is, to Jerusalem, and 
saluted the church of believers there ; after no longer a 
stay than the feast required, he went (by sea, as usual, 
and from Cesarea,) down to Antioch, and thus con* 
eluded his second great apostolic progress. 



e 3 



54 close of paul's second progress. 

On the occasion of Paul's second progress thus ter- 
minating, what became of his associate Silas, last 
mentioned A. xviii. 5. along with Timothy ? It is a 
question by no means void of interest, but better suited 
for discussion in another place. (Vide Silas in the 
Index.) Suffice it here to say, that Silas must now have 
staid behind at Jerusalem ; whereas Timothy, beyond a 
doubt, went along with the apostle, and appears again 
(A. xix. 22.), being named there along with Erastus. 



55 



PART II . — continued. 
THIRD APOSTOLIC PROGRESS. 

This third progress of the apostle from Antioch 

begins with revisiting the churches of Galatia and 
Phrygia, A. xviii. 23. 

And after introducing Apollos as having first been at 
Ephesus, and now occupied as a Christian teacher at 
Corinth, vv. 24 . . . 28. 

carries the apostle himself to Ephesus, with the gifts 
of the Holy Ghost conferred and miracles of healing 
wrought by the hands of Paul, xix. 1 ... 12. 

Shows the Jewish exorcists put to shame, and the costly 
books of magic all burned, vv. 13 . . . 20. 

and relates the riot in the theatre raised by Demetrius, 
the silversmith, on account of " Diana of the Ephe- 
sians*" v. 21. to the end. 

Paul leaves that city prematurely, and proceeds, by 
Troas, into Macedonia, (A. xx. 1.) where he meets 
with Titus and Timothy, whom he had sent from 
Ephesus, as his ministers in connection with the church 
of Corinth. 

After going over those parts, i. e. in the North-west, 
as far as Illyricum, he once more visits Corinth, v. 2. 
where that church was now well and happily disposed 
to receive him. 

Instead of sailing directly back into Syria, to elude the 
Jews who laid wait for him, he changes his plan ; and 
himself returning through Macedonia, then, with his 

e 4 



56 THIRD APOSTOLIC PROGRESS. 

companions, from Troas, where Eutychus is restored to 
life, he passes onward, vv. 3 ... 12. 

Invites the elders of the church of Ephesus to meet 
him at Miletus, and there, after a solemn charge, takes 
his affectionate farewell of them, v. 13. to the end. 

Paul sails from Miletus by Coos, Rhodes, and Patara ; 
from thence to Tyre, where he stops with the disciples ; 
by Ptolemais he comes to Cesarea, and though warned 
there also as he had been at Tyre, and besought not to 
go up to Jerusalem, he determines to go, A.xxi. 1 . . . 14. 

Arrives in that city, visits James and the elders ; in 
pursuance of their advice, and to pacify Jewish zealots, 
goes through the formal ceremony of purification ; is 
apprehended in the temple by Jews from Asia ; and 
thus abruptly closes his third apostolic progress, 
vv. 15 ... 27. 



Departure of Paul from Antioch 
for the third, and as it proved, the last time. 

On this occasion, Timothy and Erastus were cer- 
tainly, as we have seen, companions to the apostle. 
Titus also (vide Titus in the Index) must have been 
in the company. 

Acts xviii. 23. xix. 1 3 And after he had spent some 
time at Antioch, he departed once more to confirm the 
churches which he had before visited ; and went a 
second time over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia, 
in order, strengthening all the disciples. 



Galatia now visited for the second time. 

During this visitation of Galatia, the apostle seems 
to have pursued with success that purpose of charity to 



THIRD APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 57 

which their attention was first called in his epistle, on 
behalf of the necessitous brethren at Jerusalem, 
Gal. ii. 10. " Only they would that we should re- 
member the poor, the same which I also was (have 
been) forward to do." For not long after this second 
visitation, in writing from Ephesus to the Corinthians, 
he speaks thus, 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. : " Now concerning 
the collection for the saints, as I have (lately) given 
order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon 
the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by 
him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there 
be no gathering when I come." 

The order thus given to the churches in that country, 
if part of a recent transaction (as our arrangement 
makes it), was the more likely to be remembered by 
him and recommended as a plan to the adoption of the 
Corinthians ; who from this text alone should appear 
to have been well acquainted with the interest taken 
by Paul in his Galatian converts. 



Acts xviii. From v. 24. to the end of this chapter, 
digression takes place, to introduce into the apostolic 
history the name of 

APOLLOS, 

a person on many accounts highly remarkable, especi- 
ally as having gone to Corinth not long after Paul's 
departure (xviii. 18.) from that city, and having, by 
his bold eloquence probably, given rise to a party at 
Corinth (1 Cor. i. 22. iii. 4.) which in the event was 
much lamented by himself. Vide Appendix D. s. 1. 

A. xviii. 24. And a certain Jew named Apollos, 
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in 



58 THIRD APOSTOLIC PROGRESS. 

the scriptures, some time before this had come to 
Ephesus. 

Acts xviii. 25. This man was instructed in the way 
of the Lord ; and being fervent in spirit, he spake and 
taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing as 
yet only the baptism of John. 

26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue ; 
whom when Aquila and Priscilla (v. 19.) had heard, 
they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the 
way of God (the whole Christian scheme) more com- 
pletely, than he had known it before. 

27- And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, 
that is, to Corinth, the brethren (perhaps only Aquila 
and Priscilla) wrote, exhorting the disciples there to 
receive him : who, when he was come, contributed 
much to the benefit of those who had already believed 
through grace ; 

28. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that 
publickly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was 
Christ, the Messiah. 

A. xix. 1 . And it came to pass, that, while Apollos 
was thus occupied at Corinth (having left Ephesus, 
xviii. 27.) Paul having (as already told, xviii. 23.) passed 
through the upper coasts of Galatia and Phrygia, came 

to Ephesus the second time, and for a longer stay, 

according to his own promise solemnly given, A. xviii. 
21. 

At Ephesus (as appears by the salutation, 1 Cor. 
xvi. 19., from them) he found Aquila and Priscilla still 
residing. Whether as at Corinth (A. xviii. 3.) they 
and he now wrought together as being of the same craft, 
does not appear. They might be under no such ne- 
cessity now, as when they fled from Rome, on that 



THIRD PROGRESS I PAUL AT EPHESUS. 59 

sudden emergency : but to his own labours in main- 
taining himself and others with him at Ephesus, Paul 
distinctly appeals when afterwards at Miletus address- 
ing the elders from that city, A. xx. 34. 



From what follows, it might appear, that during the 
interval betwixt Paul's first and second visit to Ephesus, 
whatever Aquila and Priscilla had taught to Apollos 
privately, they had not taken upon them publickly to 
declare the whole truths of the gospel. 



Acts xix. 1. And Paul finding certain disciples on 
his arrival in that city, in the same situation apparently 
that Apollos had been, 

2. He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, 
We have not so much as heard, whether any gifts of 
the Holy Ghost be imparted to believers. 

3. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye 
baptized ? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 

4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the 
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that 
they should believe on him which should come after 
him, that is, on Jesus as the Messiah. 

5. When they heard this, they were baptized in the 
name of the Lord Jesus. 

6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, 
the Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake with 
tongues, and prophesied. 

7. And all the men, miraculously so gifted, were 
about twelve. 



60 THIRD PROGRESS I PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

Acts xix. 8. And after this Paul went into the syna- 
gogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, 
disputing and persuading the things concerning the 
kingdom of God. 

9. But when divers of the Jews were hardened and 
believed not, but spake evil of that way (the doctrine 
of Jesus as the Messiah) in the synagogue before the 
multitude there, he departed from them, and se- 
parated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of 
one Tyrannus. 

10. And this practice of daily teaching continued by 
the space of two years ; so that all they which dwelt 
in Asia (Ephesus and the region round it) heard the 
word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks, that is, 
Jewish and Gentile converts. 

Vide the Note on A. xi. 20. 

11. And God wrought special miracles by the hands 
of Paul : 

IS. So that from his body were brought unto the 
sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed 
from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. 

13. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, 
took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits 
the name of the Lord Jesus, 

— for an efficacy which they could not else command — 
saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 

14. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, 
and chief of the priests, which did so. 

15. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I 
know, and Paul I know ; but who are ye ? 

16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped 
on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against 
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and 
wounded. 



THIRD PROGRESS : PAUL AT EPHESUS. 61 

Acts xix. 17. And when this became known to all 
the Jews and Greeks also (as in v. 10.) dwelling in 
Ephesus ; an awful fear fell on them all, and the name 
of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 

18. And many that believed came, and confessed, 
and shewed their deeds. 

19. Many of them also which used curious arts 
brought their books together, and burned them before 
all men : and they counted the price of them, and 
found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 

20. So mightily grew the word of God and pre- 
vailed. 



A much fuller statement of the labours of Paul in 
this city from his own mouth is recorded by the his- 
torian, in that affecting speech (A. xx. 18. ..35.) de- 
livered at Miletus to the elders of Ephesus. 

It was during this residence at Ephesus that the 
apostle wrote 

the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 

in answer to a public letter sent from the church at 
Corinth by the hands of certain brethren, Stephanas, 
Fortunatus, Achaicus, and others, 1 Cor. xvi. 17. Of 
the peculiar subjects on which Paul was now consulted, 
the reader may be referred to a brief but very clear 
account, in H. P. 33... 36. 

This Epistle, it is important to remark, was certainly 
written, before the great riot happened, inasmuch as the 
apostle intimates (1 Cor. xvi. 8.) his design to tarry at 
Ephesus some time longer, so that his " fighting with 
beasts," (xv. 32.) whatever else it means, can have no 
reference to that scene of danger. 



t>2 THIRD PROGRESS I PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

And without letting the Corinthians know his in- 
tention, it was written, after he had determined to 
postpone his visit to Corinth for the present, H. P. 
62, 3., and when he had concerted other measures in 
accordance with that design. Apparently indeed (vide 
H. P. 40.) he had even sent off Timothy and Erastus 
(A. xix. 22.) into Macedonia before the Epistle was 
written, 1 Cor. iv. 17. xvi. 10. ; as in all probability 
soon after it was despatched, he sent off Titus (with 
" the brother ") on his first mission to Corinth, 2 Cor. 
xii. 17, 18. 



On the occasion of his writing the Second Epistle, a 
full developement of these interesting facts, entirely 
omitted by Luke, in A. xx. 1, 2., but supplied from the 
Epistles themselves, it shall be my endeavour to give ; 
to illustrate the personal history of Paul, in these his 
various concerns of correspondence with the church of 
Corinth by his ministers Titus and Timothy. 



Acts xix. 21. After these things were ended, Paul 
purposed in the spirit, first to pass through Macedonia 
(Philippi, &c.) and Achaia (Corinth and Cenchreae) 
again, and then to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I 
have been there, I must also see Rome. 

22. So he sent into Macedonia, to forward his pur- 
poses there, two of them that ministered unto him, 
Timotheus (who had been with him during this whole 
progress) and Erastus who might have come to Ephesus 
along with the deputation from Corinth, if he had not 
more probably joined him at an earlier period. For 
somewhat more of Erastus, vide the Index under that 
name. 



THIRD PROGRESS *. PAUL AT EPHESUS. 63 

Timothy and Erastus then, after that service in the 
Macedonian churches was performed, were, if nothing 
intervened to hinder, to have gone down to Corinth. 
As regards Timothy, vide 1 Cor. iv. 17- } xvi. 10., and 
Erastus was a Corinthian. 

But Paul himself stayed in Asia (i. e. Ephesus) for 
a season. He had meant to tarry in that city until 
Pentecost, 1 Cor. xvi. 8. The ensuing history will 
show how his intention was frustrated. 

For the fuller information promised at H. P. 40, 1. 
to be given here of this journey of Timothy thoroughly 
investigated, vide Appendix D. s. 2. 






Acts xix, 23. And the same time there arose no 
small stir about that way, L e. the profession of the 
Christian faith. 

24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silver- 
smith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no 
small gain unto the craftsmen ; 

25. Whom he called together with the workmen of 
like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this 
craft we have our wealth. 

26. Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at 
Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul 
hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying 
that they be no gods, which are made with hands : 

27. So that not only this our craft is in danger to 
be set at nought ; but also that the temple of the great 
goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence 
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world wor- 
shippeth. 

28. And when the workmen heard these sayings, 
they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is 
Diana of the Ephesians. 



64 THIRD PROGRESS *. AT EPHESUS, THE RIOT. 

Acts xix. 29. And the whole city was filled with 
confusion : and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, 
men of Macedonia, two of Paul's companions in travel 
(H. P. 146, 7«)» ^ e y rusn ed with one accord into the 
theatre, their usual place of assembly. 

30. And when Paul would have entered in unto the 
people there, his disciples begged him not to do so. 

31. And certain of the Asiarchs (i. e. presidents of 
the games at Ephesus) which were his friends, 

— this shows the high rank in society to which the 
apostolic influence had now extended — 
sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adven- 
ture himself into the theatre ; — and Paul forbore ac- 
cordingly. 

32. Some therefore cried one thing, and some an- 
other : for the assembly was confused ; and the more 
part knew not wherefore they were come together. 

33. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, 
the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned 
with the hand, and would have made his defence unto 
the people. 



If we may suppose this Alexander to be the same 
with that Ephesian so named at a later period, and 
twice mentioned by the apostle, he must at one time 
certainly have been in the right faith : else, he could 
not afterwards have made shipwreck of it, 1 Tim. i. 20., 
or become the personal enemy of Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 14., 
as a Judaising Christian. 

But it may be asked, Why was Alexander, if such a 
man as we suppose him, at this time drawn by Ephesian 
rioters out of the multitude ? And why did the Jews 
put him forward ? 



THIRD PROGRESS *. AT EPHESUS, THE RIOT. 65 

The following solution, which I derive from Calvin's 
commentary on the passage, seems highly probable : 
that he was drawn forth by some of the Ephesians, 
because he was well known in Ephesus as a Jew, and 
no friend therefore to idolatrous images, and malig- 
nantly thrust forward by the Jews, because he had 
recently become a convert to Christianity. And with 
this supposition his marked character in other respects 
would well agree : right or wrong, he seems to have 
been a bold and violent man. 



Acts xix. 34. But when they found that Alexander, 
so put forward, was a Jew, all with one voice about the 
space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the 
Ephesians. 

35. And when at length the town-clerk had appeased 
the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is 
there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians 
is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the 
image which fell down from Jupiter ? 

36. Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken 
against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. 

37. For ye have brought hither these men, which 
are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of 
your goddess. 

38. Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which 
are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is 
open, and there are deputies (?'. e. proconsuls) : let them 
implead one another. 

39. But if ye inquire any thing concerning other 
matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. 

40 . For we are in danger to be called in question 
for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we 
may give an account of this concourse. 

F 



66 THIRD PROGRESS: PAUL IN MACEDONIA. 

Acts xix. 41. And when he had thus spoken, he dis- 
missed the assembly. 

A. xx. From v. 1. to the firstpart of v. 3., "and there 
abode three months," the whole of a very complicated 
series of transactions is wrapped up in one very short 
summary. 

1. And after the uproar in the theatre was ceased, 
Paul departed for to go into Macedonia. 



After leaving Ephesus thus prematurely, he pro- 
ceeded to Troas ; and disappointed in not finding Titus 
there, whom he had expected from Corinth, he has- 
tened into Macedonia ; 

Paul in Macedonia a second time, H. P. 138. 

where he was met by Titus, (2 Cor. vii. 6.) and where 
also, as it will be shown, he overtook Timothy. 

From Macedonia, and most probably from Philippi, 
he wrote 

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians ; 

which at its very opening supplies us with an import- 
ant fact, H. P. 1.66., by presenting the name of Timothy 
as then and there with the apostle, on the superscription 
of it. 

This epistle was sent by the hands of Titus, (2 Cor. 
viii. 16.) from the peculiar interest which he had shown, 
(vii. 13.) in the welfare of the Corinthian converts, and 
which being again met on their part with affectionate 
respect, may account for his being left behind at Co- 
rinth, when Paul at a later period took his departure, 
A. xx. 4. with those seven companions from that part 
of Greece. 



THIRD PROGRESS*. PAUL... UNTO ILLYRICUM. 67 

For the personal history of the apostle variously- 
involved in that epistle, and for the part which Titus 
and Timothy bore in those transactions, the reader is of 
necessity referred to Appendix D., in which he will 
also read, s. 4., a brief account of the charitable contri- 
bution at this time collected for the poor brethren at 
Jerusalem ; and some remarks will be found there, s. 5., 
on the apostle's grand retrospect of his labours and 
sufferings, 2 Cor. vi. 4... 10. and xi. 21... 28. 



Acts xx. 2. And when Paul had gone over those parts, 
— it was now, H. P. 24, 5, 9 that he reached the con- 
fines of Illyricum, Rom. xv. 19., and in parts lying to 
the north-west of Greece begun that preaching of the 
gospel which afterwards carried him to Nicopolis, 
Tit. iii. 12. and at a later day sent Titus into Dal- 
matia. 2 Tim. iv. 10. 

When Paul then had gone over those parts and given 
much exhortation to the disciples, he came into Greece, 
and of course therefore 

to Corinth, the second time, 

(It was the third time he had intended to visit that 
city, 2 Cor. xii. 14. xiii. 1. H. P. 74.) 

3. And there he now abode three months. 



During this stay at Corinth, Paul appears to have 
written the greatest of all his epistles, 

the Epistle to the Romans, 

not being yet able to fulfil his intention (A. xix. 21.) 
of visiting Rome in person, though he had oftentimes 

f 2 



68 THIRD PROGRESS : EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

purposed it, and then longed to see the brethren in that 
city, Rom. i. 10... 15. His present engagement, how- 
ever, to carry up to Jerusalem (Rom. xv. 25, 6.) the 
collection already mentioned, serves sufficiently to ac- 
count for his delaying the execution of that design. 

Singularly enough, he makes the visit to Rome con- 
tingent on a plan which it is clear he had then con- 
ceived of visiting what may indeed be called the re- 
motest ivest, vv. 24. 28. " If ever I take (as my in- 
tention now is) a journey into Spain, I will come to 
you : for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be 
forwarded thither by you, after I have in some degree 
satisfied myself with your company/' 

On this interesting question of his projected visit to 
Spain, whether it was accomplished or not, a more 
proper place will occur to speak somewhat more at large, 
towards the conclusion of this sacred narrative, when 
the apostle is set free from his first imprisonment at 
Rome. Vide Appendix F. 



As to the circumstance of Phebe, (xvi. 1.) by whom 
the epistle was sent, belonging to Cenchreae, the eastern 
port of Corinth, and as to the time which our chrono- 
logy allows for Aquila and Priscilla, after their different 
movements, being now at Rome again, xvi. 3., Dr. Paley 
may be consulted with advantage and satisfaction, H. P. 
21, 2. and (ii.) 1?...20. 

Aquila and Priscilla at the close of the epistle are 
there greeted not only in the very first rank of saluta- 
tion, but with a peculiarity of acknowledgment be- 
sides, which seems to refer to the tumultuous scene at 
Ephesus (and its consequences) for one of the many 
eminent services which they, being Jews, had rendered 
to the Gentile Christians, Rom. xvi. 3... 5. " Greet 



THHID PROGRESS : EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 69 

Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who 
have for my life laid down their own necks : unto whom 
not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the 
Gentiles. Likewise greet the church which is in their 
house." 

The attentive reader can hardly fail to have been 
struck with the very great number and particularity of 
the Christian brethren saluted as being at Rome, in 
the concluding chapter. It indicates amongst other 
things the vast frequency of intercourse which led from 
all quarters, especially from a place like Corinth, to the 
metropolis of the empire. And the freedom of the 
Mediterranean sea from piracy or war, which in Horace's 
time was a blessing recently acquired, 

Pacatum volitant per mare navitae. 4? C. v. 19. 

had now long been cultivated as a permanent and uni- 
versal advantage. 

The general situation of the world at the time of the 
Messiah's appearance, that " fulness of the time," Gal. 
iv. 4., has of course been always duely remarked, as sin- 
gularly auspicious to the quick and extensive spreading 
of the gospel. The progress of the Macedonic and 
Roman (then united) empires to that remarkable con- 
summation of power under the sway of Augustus Caesar 
gave advantages for the propagation of Christianity un- 
known to any period before. Then precisely, when 
Judea had just become a province of the Roman em- 
pire, and formed part of that wide society established 
under it, was the time marked in the eternal counsels 
of God to spread another and everlasting empire over 
the souls of mankind ; and under this exact situation 
which Divine Providence had matured for the purpose, 
the joyful sound of salvation within a few years was 

f 3 



70 THIRD PROGRESS *. EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

heard in remote corners of the earth, into which it 
might not otherwise have penetrated for many ages. 

But in the providential arrangements of that mighty 
scheme which was to carry glad tidings through all the 
nations of the then known world, it must not be for- 
gotten, that an engine of wonderful fitness and efficacy 
for co-operation also was provided in the universal jdis- 
peesion of the Jews, now after several stages of pro- 
gress complete. Wherever their hard fortune from the 
disasters of Judea, or their own turn afterwards for vo- 
luntary migration, carried them into foreign countries, 
the common tie of a religion so peculiar and exclusive 
naturally served to bind them together : and under a 
high species of free-masonry (if that phrase may be 
forgiven) wherever an Israelite met an Israelite, he 
would find for every purpose a brother and a friend. 
To no other people in that or in any age could the 
principle of aggregation so powerfully belong. The 
Christian labours of Paul wherever he goes, attest this 
existence of Jews in collective society : and the favour- 
able opportunity for preaching Jesus as the Messiah, 
which their synagogue presented, is always first tried 
by the apostle of the Gentiles. 

To the metropolis of the empire particularly, as 
might for many reasons be expected, a great concourse 
of Jews had always taken place ; and more than a cen- 
tury before the date of this Epistle to the Romans, 
we find, on Tully's authority *, that their numbers 
and credit also were very considerable in that city. At 
the period which now engages our attention, the Jews 
" were very numerous at Rome, and probably formed 
a principal part among the new converts." H. P. 31. 
Of Gentile converts who had previously been proselytes, 
the remainder must have chiefly consisted. And be it 

* Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i. pp. 316, 7. Ed. 1742. 



THIRD PROGRESS : EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 71 

remembered, that as the zeal of the Jews to gain pro- 
selytes to the law, wherever they went, was remarkably 
active, so on the preaching of Paul those very prose- 
lytes, we find, were often distinguished by their greater 
readiness in being converted to the gospel. The ex- 
change with them had every thing to recommend it, as 
being at once a transition from strict observances of the 
Mosaic ritual which early use had seldom in their case 
rendered tolerable, to the spiritual yoke with its light 
burden which the religion of Christ imposed on his fol- 
lowers. 



On the sublime doctrinal matter, of justification by 
faith, which forms the principal part of the Epistle to 
the Romans, it does not fall within my humble design 
here to speak : but as a beginning, an introduction at 
least to that great argument, the reader may be advan- 
tageously referred to Nos. vii. and viii. of the Horae 
Paulina?, pp. 28... 33. 



Let us now resume the personal history, after ob- 
serving only that the epistle which we have been here 
considering, is the last of those six epistles written 
before the apostle's latest recorded journey to Jeru- 
salem, and before his imprisonments, first at Cesarea 
and afterwards at Rome. 

Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Corin- 
thians, Romans. 

Paul, after abiding six months at Corinth, had pur- 
posed then to terminate his third great progress and 
return directly to Antioch once more. 

Acts xx. 3. But when the Jews laid malicious wait 

f 4 



7^ THIRD PROGRESS! RETURN THROUGH MACEDONIA. 

for him as he was about to sail (as at xviii. 18.) on his 
main voyage into Syria (which he afterwards did, xxi. 
3. 4.), he changed his plan, and now determined to 
visit Macedonia again, before he returned to the East. 

Acts xx. 4. And from Corinth on this journey seven 
faithful followers were to bear him company, Sopater 
of Berea, — who afterwards left the party in Asia, pro- 
bably at Miletus, v. 15. — and of the Thessalonians, 
Aristarchus and Secundus ; and Gaius of Derbe with 
Timotheus (of Lystra); and of Asia, Tychicus and 
Trophimus. 



Here we may pause to inquire where certain other 
associates of Paul were at this time. 

Of Erastus the natural account seems to be, that 
after so long an absence he now would remain in his 
native city among the brethren there. Vide Index, 
Erastus, ss. i. ii. 

Titus had been sent down from Philippi to Corinth 
on that mission, 2 Cor. viii. 18. ; and as he did not 
now form one of the party which attended Paul, he 
would remain on that scene of spiritual usefulness, 
honoured and beloved. Vide Index, Titus, s. v. 

In Luke's recorded movements not a vestige exists 
to show that he had ever quitted Philippi to visit Co- 
rinth at all ; and at the present season, it is quite clear, 
that he only joined the apostle on his reaching Philippi, 
vv. 3... 6. The significant words, us and we, deter- 
mine that point of time and locality. 

The identity, therefore, of the Lucius in Rom. xvi. 
21. with Luke the sacred historian, assumed in H. P. 
16, 17. note, cannot any longer be maintained. Vide 
also Index, Luke, s. iv. 



THIRD PROGRESS *. RETURN BY TROAS. ?3 

Acts xx. 5. When Paul visited Philippi and made 
some stay, 

— where Luke had been left behind on that memo- 
rable occasion, A. xvi. 40., and had stayed ever 
since, no " unprofitable servant" with talents like 
his — 

when Paul was thus at Philippi the third time ; 

the seven followers of Paul by his direction proceeded 
at once to Troas, among the brethren there to wait till 
he should arrive from Macedonia, themselves in the 
mean while not to be idle in so important a vineyard. 

These then going before tarried for us at Troas ; for 
us, that is, for the apostle, and Luke himself, then taken 
into the number of those that ministered unto him. 

And thus, be it also remarked, the future evangelist 
and recorder of the Acts was by Divine Providence here 
enlisted in that apostolic service, which ultimately ren- 
dered him the great historian of Christianity. 



A. xx. 6. And we sailed away from Philippi after 
the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to 
Troas in five days ; where we abode seven days, 

— days devoted to the church at Troas, where Luke 
was personally well known, and where Paul himself 
would retrieve the opportunity lost when on his last 
visit there he quitted the place in haste and reluctantly, 
2 Cor. ii. 12, 13. 

7. And upon the first day of the week, when the dis- 
ciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto 
them, ready to depart on the morrow ; and continued 
his speech until midnight. 

8. And there were many lights where w t e were ga- 
thered together. Vide Note. 



74 THIRD PROGRESS : RETURN BY TROAS. 

Acts xx. 9. And there sate in a window a certain 
young man, named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep 
sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down 
with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was 
taken up dead. 

10. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and em- 
bracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves ; for his life 
is in him. 

11. When he therefore was come up again, and had 
broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even 
till break of day, then he departed. 

12. And they brought the young man alive, and were 
not a little comforted. 

13. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto 
Assos, there intending to take in Paul : for so had he 
appointed, minding himself to go by land. Vide Note. 

— " designing perhaps to call upon some of the 
Christians by the way." Dr. Benson, vol. ii. p. 217. 
This idea, if we might indulge it, would favour the 
supposition that the apostle, when he left Ephesus, 
(xx. 1.) had then gone up by land to Troas, and had 
made or visited some converts to the gospel at the close 
of that journey betwixt Troas and Assos. Vide Troas 
in the Index. 



A. xx. 14. And when Paul met with us at Assos, 
we took him in, and came to Mitylene. 

1.5. And we sailed thence, and came the next day 
over against Chios ; and the next day we arrived at 
Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium ; and the next day 
we came to Miletus. 

16. For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, 
because he would not spend the time in Asia (that city 



THIRD PROGRESS : RETURN BY MILETUS. 7 5 

and neighbourhood) : for he hasted, if it were possible 
for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. 

Acts xx. 17. And from Miletus (at the distance 
of about xxv miles) he sent to Ephesus, and called the 
elders of the church. 

18. And when they were come to him, he said unto 
them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into 
Asia, after what manner I have been at all seasons, 

19. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and 
with many tears, and temptations (i, e. trials and perils) 
which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews (from 
which, it should seem, he was seldom exempt) : 

20. And how I kept back nothing that was profit- 
able unto you, but have showed you, and have taught 
you both publickly and in private houses, 

21. Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the 
Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

22. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto 
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me 
there : 

23. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every 
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. 



When he wrote to the Romans from Corinth in his 
three months' stay there, (A. xx. 3.) he then begged 
their prayers, that he might be delivered from the un- 
believing Jews in Judea. Rom. xv. 30, 31. But that 
his fears should now become greater and his hopes less 
at this stage of his journey to Jerusalem, is well re- 
marked in H. P. 26, 7. 



76 THIRD PROGRESS : RETURN BY MILETUS. 

Acts xx. 24. But none of these things move me, 
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I 
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
gospel of the grace of God. 

25„ And now, behold, I know that ye all, among 
whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall 
see my face no more. 

— On the true interpretation of this verse, let H. P. 
I67, 8. by all means be consulted. 

26. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that 
I am pure from the blood of all men. 

S7. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all 
the counsel of God. 

28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all 
the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made 
you overseers (eTno-xoVou?), to feed the church of God, 
which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

29. For I know this, that after my departing shall 
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the 
flock. 

30. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak- 
ing perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 



These forebodings of evil and error, as it appears 
from several passages in the First Epistle to Timothy, 
were fully realised some years afterwards in the church 
of Ephesus. 



A. xx. 31. Therefore watch, and remember, that by 
the space of three years I ceased not to warn every 
one night and day with tears. 



THIRD PROGRESS *. RETURN BY MILETUS. 77 

Acts xx. 32. And now, brethren, I commend you 
to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to 
build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all 
them which are sanctified. 

33. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or ap- 
parel. 

34. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have 
ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were 
with me. 

— On the agreement of this speech of Paul to the 
elders of Ephesus, with the particular fact recorded 
in A. xviii. 3., the reader may consult H. P. 43. 
and 161, 2. 

35. I have showed you all things, how that so la- 
bouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remem- 
ber the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is 
more blessed to give than to receive. 

36. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, 
and prayed with them all. 

37. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, 
and kissed him, 

38. Sorrowing most of all for the words which he 
spake, that they should see his face no more. And 
they accompanied him unto the ship. 

Acts xxi. Here let it be premised, that Luke and 
the now six companions of Paul (for Sopater is sup- 
posed to have staid behind at Miletus) are still found in 
his company as far as the 18th verse of this chapter in- 
clusive : but in the course of a few days afterwards he 
was parted from them, 

1. And it came to pass, that after we were gotten 
from the Ephesian elders, and had launched from 
Miletus, we came with a straight course unto Coos, 



78 PAUL, ON RETURN FROM THE THIRD PROGRESS, 

and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence 
unto Patara : 

Acts xxi. 2. And finding a ship sailing over unto 
Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth. 

3. Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it 
on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at 
Tyre : for there the ship was to unlade her burden. 

4. And having found out the disciples (vide Note) 
that were in that city, — those converted as early as 
A. xi. 19... 21. — we tarried there seven days (thus 
including the Lord's day, which they had done at 
Troas) : which disciples said to Paul through the Spirit, 
that he should not go up to Jerusalem. 

5. And when we had accomplished those days, we 
departed and went our way ; and they all brought us 
on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of 
the city : and we kneeled down on the shore, and 
prayed, 

6. And when we had taken our leave one of an- 
other, we took ship ; and they returned home again. 

7. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, 
we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and 
abode with them one day. 

8. And the next day we that were of Paul's com- 
pany departed, and came unto Cesarea : and we entered 
into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one 
of the seven, A. vi. 5. 

— His labours in the gospel are particularly re- 
corded, A. viii. 5... 40. 
and there abode with him. 

9. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, 
which did prophesy. 

10. And as we tarried there several days, there came 
down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus, — 
the same with Agabus, in A. xi. 28. 



ARRIVES AT JERUSALEM. 79 

Actsxxi. II. And when he was come unto us, he 
took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, 
and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews 
at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and 
shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 

12. And when we heard these things, both we, and 
they of that place, besought him not to go up to Je- 
rusalem. 

13. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep 
and to break my heart ? for I am ready not to be 
bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name 
of the Lord Jesus. 

14. And when he would not be persuaded, w r E ceased, 
saying, The Lord's will be done. 

15. And after those days we packed up for the jour- 
ney, and went up to Jerusalem. 

16. There went with us also certain of the disciples 
of Cesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of 
Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge. 



Paul, for the last recorded time, at Jerusalem. 

A. xxi. 17. And when we were come to Jerusalem, 
the brethren there received us gladly, 

— " particularly on account of the great alms now 
brought for the poor saints at Jerusalem," from their 
Gentile brethren. 

18. And the day following Paul went in with us 
unto James ; and all the elders were present. 

— At this time, John was not at Jerusalem, nor yet 
Peter: James, with episcopal rank, was permanently 
there. Vide Index, Peter, &c. 

19. And when Paul had saluted them, he declared 



80 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

particularly what things God had wrought among the 
Gentiles by his ministry, 

— in the course of his late most extensive and varied 
progress. 

Acts xxi. 20. And when they heard it, they glori- 
fied the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, 
how many thousands of Jews there are (at the feast) 
which believe ; and they are all zealous of the law : 

21. And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest 
all the Jews (i. e. Jewish believers) which are among 
the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought 
not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after 
the customs. 

22. What is it therefore ? the multitude must needs 
come together : for they will hear that thou art come. 

23. Do therefore this that we say to thee : We have 
four men which have a vow on them ; 

24. Them take, and purify thyself along with them, 
and (as they are poor men) help them to defray the 
expences of it, that they may shave their heads and be 
clear from their vow (Numbers vi. 13... 31.) ; and that 
so all may know that those things, whereof they were 
informed concerning thee, are nothing ; but that thou 
thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. 

— Here, be it remarked, " though the law was no 
longer necessary, it had not become sinful." 

25. As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have 
written (A. xv. 28, 9.) and concluded, that they ob- 
serve no such thing, save only that they keep them- 
selves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and 
from strangled, and from fornication. 

26. Then Paul took the men, and the next day purify- 
ing himself with them entered into the temple, to signify 
the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that 
an offering should be offered for every one of them. 



PAUL UNDER JEWISH PERSECUTION. 81 

Acts xxi. 27. And when the seven days were almost 
ended, the (unbelieving) Jews which were of Asia, 

— probably from Ephesus, who had come to the 

feast of Pentecost — 
when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the 
people, and laid hands on him. 



At this point, the third apostolic progress may be 
said to terminate. 

If the violent and unjust apprehension of Paul had 
not now occurred, he might as before have returned to 
Antioch, the close of his former progresses ; or he 
might have taken the earliest opportunity instead to 
visit Rome, according to his intention solemnly declared 
at Ephesus. 

A. xix. 21. After I have been there (at Jerusalem), 
I must also see Rome. 

From henceforth, however, we have to view the 
apostle of the Gentiles as suffering under Jewish per- 
secution, to the end of the Acts. And the remainder 
of the sacred narrative is altogether so very full, clear, 
and distinct, as to supersede the necessity of any sum- 
mary. The history may thus be resumed. 

A. xxi. 27. And when the seven days were almost 
ended, the (unbelieving) Jews which were of Asia, 
when they saw Paul in the temple, stirred up all the 
people, and laid lands on him, 

28. Crying out, Men of Israel, help : This is the 
man, that teacheth all men every where against the 
people, and the law, and this place ; and further 
brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted 
this holy place. 



82 PAUL AT JERUSALEM, 

Acts xxi. 29. (For they had seen before with him 
Trophimus, the Ephesian, whom they falsely supposed 
that Paul had brought into the temple.) 

30. And all the city was moved, and the people ran 
together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of 
the temple : and forthwith the doors were shut. 

31. And as they went about to kill him, tidings 
came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jeru- 
salem was in an uproar : 

32. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, 
and ran down unto them ; and when they saw the chief 
captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. 

33. Then the chief captain came near, and took 
him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains ; 
and demanded who he was, and what he had done. 

34. And some cried one thing, some another, among 
the multitude : and when he could not know the cer- 
tainty for the tumult, he commanded Paul to be carried 
into the castle. 

35. And when he came'upon the stairs, so it was, that 
he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. 

36. For the multitude of the people followed after, 
crying, Away with him. 

37. And as Paul was about to be led into the castle, 
he said (in Greek) to the chief captain, May I speak 
unto thee ? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek ? 

— To the chief captain it would have been of no use 
to speak in the Syriac or Hebrew tongue of that day : 
Greek of course he knew. 

38. Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these 
days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilder- 
ness four thousand men that were murderers ? 

39. But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of 
Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city : 
and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. 



UNDER JEWISH PERSECUTION. 83 

Acts xxi. 40. And when he had given him licence, 
Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand 
unto the people. And when there was made a great 
silence, he spake unto them (the common people) in 
the Hebrew tongue, saying, 

A. xxii. 1. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my 
defence which I make now unto you. 

2. (And when they heard that he spake in the He- 
brew tongue to them, they kept the more silence : and 
he saith,) 

3. I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in 
Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at 
the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the per- 
fect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous 
towards God, as ye all are this day. 

4. And I persecuted this way (the Christian) unto 
the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men 
and women. 

5. As also the high priest (of that day) doth bear 
me witness, and all the estate of the elders : from whom 
also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to 
Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto 
Jerusalem, for to be punished. 

6. And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, 
and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly 
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 

7. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice 
saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 

8. And I answered, Who art thou, Lord ? And 
he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou 
persecutest. 

9. And they that were with me saw indeed the 
light, and were afraid ; but they heard not the voice — 
so as to understand it — of him that spake to me. 

g 2 



84 PAUL AT JERUSALEM, 

Acts xxii. 10. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? 
And the Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Da- 
mascus ; and there it shall be told thee of all things 
which are appointed for thee to do. 

11. And when I could not see for the glory of that 
light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, 
I came into Damascus. 

12. And one Ananias (then a disciple, A. ix. 10.) 
having as a proselyte been strict in observing the law, 
and therefore being well reported of by all the Jews 
that dwelt there, 

— this character would win the attention of Paul's 
present hearers — 

13. Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, 
Brother Saul, receive thy sight again. And the same 
hour I recovered my sight, and looked him in the 
face. 

14. And he said, The God of our fathers hath 
chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see 
that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his 
mouth. 

15. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of 
what thou hast seen and heard. 

16. And now why tarriest thou ? arise, and be bap- 
tized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
the Lord. 

17. And it came to pass, that when I was come 
again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, 
I was in a trance ; 

— on the subject of divine visions, vide Appendix C. 
on A. xviii. 9, 10. 

18. And saw him (the blessed Jesus) saying unto 
me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : 
for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. 

1 9. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned 



UNDER JEWISH PERSECUTION. 85 

and beat in every synagogue them that believed on 
thee. 

Acts xxii. 20. And when the blood of thy martyr 
Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consent- 
ing unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that 
slew him. 

21. And he said unto me, Depart : for I will send 
thee far hence unto the Gentiles. 

22. And they gave him audience unto this word, 
and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with 
such a fellow from the earth : for it is not fit that he 
should live. 

23. And as they cried out, and threw up their 
garments, and flung dust into the air, 

24. The chief captain commanded Paul to be 
brought into the castle, and bade that he should be 
examined by scourging ; that he might know where- 
fore they cried so against him, 

25. And when they had bound him with the thongs, 
(vide Note) Paul said unto the centurion that stood 
by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a 
Roman, and uncondemned ? 

26. When the centurion heard that, he went and 
told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou 
doest : for this man is a Roman. 

27. Then the chief captain came, and said unto 
Paul, Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said, Yea. 

28. And the chief captain answered, With a great 
sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I 
was free born. 

29. Then straightway they departed from him which 
should have examined him by the scourge : and the 
chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was 
a Roman, and because he had bound him. 

30. On the morrow, because he would have it cer- 

g 3 



86 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM, 



tainly known for what cause Paul was accused of the 
Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded 
the chief priests and all their council to appear, and 
brought Paul down, and set him before them. 

Acts xxiii. 1. And Paul, earnestly beholding the 
council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all 
good conscience before God until this day. 

2. And the high priest Ananias commanded them 
that stood by him, to smite him on the mouth. 

3. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, 
thou whited wall : for sittest thou to judge me after 
the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to 
the law ? 

4. And they that Stood by said, Revilest thou God's 
high priest ? 

5. Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he 
was the high priest : for it is written, Thou shalt not 
speak evil of the ruler of thy people. 

6. But when Paul perceived that the one part were 
Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the 
council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of 
a Pharisee : of the hope and resurrection of the dead I 
am called in question. 

7. And when he had so said, there arose a dissen- 
sion between the Pharisees and the Sadducees : and the 
multitude was divided. 

8. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrec- 
tion, neither angel, nor spirit : but the Pharisees con- 
fess both. 

9. And there arose a great cry : and the scribes that 
were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, 
We find no evil in this man : but if a spirit or an angel 
hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God. 

10. And when there arose a great dissension, the 






UNDER JEWISH PERSECUTION. 87 

chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled 
in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, 
and to take him by force from among them, and to 
bring him into the castle. 

Acts xxiii. 11. And the night following the Lord 
stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul : for 
as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou 
bear witness also at Rome. 

— Apparently, the two limits divinely marked for 
the apostolic missions of Paul. 

12. And when it was day, certain of the Jews 
banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, 
saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they 
had killed Paul. 

13. And they were more than forty which had 
made this conspiracy. 

14. And they came to the chief priests and elders, 
and said, We have bound ourselves under a great 
curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain 
Paul. 

15. Now therefore ye with the council signify to 
the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to- 
morrow, as though ye would inquire something more 
perfectly concerning him : and we, or ever he come 
near, are ready to kill him. 

16. And when Paul's sister's son heard of their 
lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and 
told Paul. 

17. Then Paul called one of the centurions unto 
him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief 
captain : for he hath a certain thing to tell him. 

18. So he took him, and brought him to the chief 
captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, 
and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who 
hath something to say unto thee. 

g 4 



88 PAUL UNDER JEWISH PERSECUTION. 

Acts xxiii. 19. Then the chief captain took him by 
the hand, and went with him aside privately, and 
asked him, What is that thou hast to tell me ? 

20. And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire 
thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to-morrow into 
the council, as though they would inquire somewhat of 
him more perfectly. 

21. But do not thou yield to them : for there lie 
in wait for him of them more than forty men, which 
have bound themselves with an oath, that they will 
neither eat nor drink till they have killed him : and 
now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee. 

22. So the chief captain then let the young man 
depart, and charged him, See thou tell no man that 
thou hast showed these things to me. 

23. And he called unto him two centurions, say- 
ing, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Cesarea, 
and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two 
hundred, at the third Hour of the night : 

24. And provide them beasts, that they may set 
Paul on, and bring him safe unto Felix the governor. 

25. And he wrote a letter after this manner : 

26. Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent go- 
vernor Felix sendeth greeting. 

27. This man was taken of the Jews, and was in 
danger of being killed by them : then came I with the 
soldiers at my command, and rescued him, having un- 
derstood that he was a Roman. 

28. And when I would have known the cause 
wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into 
their council : 

29. Whom I perceived to be accused of questions 
of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge 
worthy of death or of bonds. 

30. And when it was told me how that the Jews 



PAUL AT CESAUEA ON HIS TRIAL. 89 

laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and 
gave commandment to his accusers also to say before 
thee what they had against him. Farewell. 

Acts xxiii. 31. Then the soldiers, as it was com- 
manded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to 
Antipatris. 

3°2. On the morrow they left the horsemen to go 
with him, and returned to the castle : 

33. Who (the horsemen), when they came to Ce- 
sarea, and delivered the epistle to the governor, pre- 
sented Paul also before him. 

34. And when the governor had read the letter, 
he asked of what province Paul was. And when he 
understood that he was of Cilicia ; 

35. I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers 
are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in 
Herod's judgment hall. 

A.xxiv. 1. And after five days Ananias the high priest 
descended (from Jerusalem) with the elders, and with 
a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the 
governor against Paul. 

2. And when he was called forth, Tertullus began 
to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy 
great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done 
unto this nation by thy providence, 

3. We accept it always, and in all places, most 
noble Felix, with all thankfulness. 

4. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious 
unto thee, I pray thee, that thou wouldest hear us, of 
thy clemency, a few words. 

5. For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, 
and a mover of sedition among all the Jews, and a ring- 
leader of the sect of the Nazarenes : 

6. Who also hath gone about to profane the temple : 



90 PAUL AT CESAREA ON HIS TRIAL. 

whom we took, and would have judged according to our 
law. 

Acts xxiv. 7« But the chief captain Lysias came 
upon us, and with great violence took him away out of 
our hands, 

8. Commanding his accusers to come unto thee : 
by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge 
of all these things, whereof we accuse him. 

9. And the Jews also assented, saying that these 
things were so. 

10. Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned 
unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that 
thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, 
I do the more cheerfully answer for myself : 

11. Because that thou mayest understand, that there 
are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem 
for to worship. 

12. And they neither found me in the temple dis- 
puting with any man, neither raising up the people, 
neither in the synagogues, nor in the city : 

13. Neither can they prove the things whereof they 
now accuse me. 

14. But this I confess unto thee, that after the 
way which they call heresy (or sect, as at v. 5.) so 
worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things 
which are written in the law and in the prophets : 

15. And have hope toward God, which they them- 
selves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of 
the dead, both of the just and unjust. 

16. And herein do I exercise myself to have always 
a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward 
men. 

17. Now after many years 

— the last visit previously paid by Paul to Jerusalem 
is recorded A. xviii. 22. — 



PAUL AT CESAREA ON HIS TRIAL. 91 

I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings (on 
account of the vow, A. xxi. 26.). 

— For the object of that eleemosynary mission and 
the particulars regarding it, vide Appendix D. s. 4. 

Acts xxiv. 18. Whereupon (during this my visit) 
certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, 
neither with multitude, nor with tumult. 

19. Who (the Jews from Asia) ought to have been 
here before thee, and object, if they had ought against 
me. 

20. Or else let these same here say, if they found 
any evil doing proved against me, while I stood before 
the council, 

21. Except it be for this one voice, that I cried 
standing among them, Touching the resurrection of 
the dead I am called in question by you this day. 

22. And when Felix heard these things, having now 
more correct and just knowledge of that way which Paul 
professed to follow, 

— vide infra, A. xxv. 18, 19 

he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief 
captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of 
your matter. 

23. And he commanded the centurion (one of those, 
A. xxiii. 23.) to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, 
and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to 
minister or come unto him. 

24. And after certain days, when Felix (after some 
short absence) came to Cesarea with his wife Drusilla, 
which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him 
concerning the faith in Christ. 

25. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temper- 
ance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and 
answered, Go thy way for this time ; when I have a 
convenient season, I will call for thee. 



92 PAUL AT CESAREA. 

Acts xxiv. 26. He hoped also that money should have 
been given him of Paul, that he might loose him : where- 
fore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. 

27. But after two years Porcius Fes t us came into 
Felix' room : and Felix, willing to show the Jews a 
pleasure, left Paul still a prisoner. 



Cesarea at this period, as the seat of the Roman 
governor and having a very fine harbour also, was a city 
of great political and commercial resort, and from its 
peculiar connection with the early progress of the gospel, 
an object of great interest to us. There, too, we find 
Paul appear on that scene of history enjoying the society 
of all persons of his acquaintance who wished it, v. 23., 
and in the midst of free and frequent intercourse with 
every part of the world, especially so with Jerusalem, 
on the one hand, much also with Antioch on the other. 

For our immediate purpose, the reader may be re- 
minded also, that Philip the evangelist was settled at 
Cesarea, A. xxi. 8., where he had founded a church of 
believers, A. viii. 40., and where we find amongst other 
names, A. xxi. 16., that of Mnason of Cyprus desig- 
nated as an old disciple. 

During the two years therefore that Paul resided, 
A, xxiv. 27., under these favourable circumstances at 
Cesarea, we cannot doubt but that his evangelical zeal 
would find a range of blessed and constant activity, in 
" the daily care of all the churches " then very numer- 
ous -, though it may be regretted that of those un- 
questionable labours, carried on through his apostolic 
ministers, no particular record has been preserved. 

But what, it may be asked, appears in the mean 
while to have become of Paul's companions in travel ? 



PAUL AT CESAREA. 93 

During his short stay at Jerusalem, they must have 
continued with the apostle : but his being carried off to 
Cesarea for safety, A. xxiii. 23.. ,33., would detach him 
at once from his faithful associates. Nor during the in- 
terval of his two years' residence in that city does any 
clear vestige remain to show, how many of them were 
otherwise on missions employed, or after rejoining him 
there formed his personal society. 

His appeal to Cesar, A. xxvi. 32., appears to have 
led to an immediate transmission from Cesarea; and we 
may well suppose that the privilege of several attend- 
ants would hardly be granted to him. In this sudden 
emergency, we find that two only, Aristarchus the 
Macedonian (A. xxvii. 2.) and the sacred historian Luke 
(afterwards joined in salutation from Rome, Coloss. 
iv. 10.) bore the apostle company in that voyage. 

Of Secunclus, the name, after A. xx. 4., occurs no 
where else ; nor does that of Sosipater or Sopater 
(Rom. xvi. 21.) ever again appear. 

To Gaius of Derbe who after that time does not 
re-appear, on account of his important character a 
separate notice is devoted in the Index under that 
name, Gaius. 

Trophimus, the innocent cause of all that trouble, 
A. xxi. 29., is particularly mentioned at a very late 
period of the apostle's travels, 2 Tim. iv. 20. 

Tychicus, " a fellow-servant and faithful minister in 
the Lord," was on several occasions of moment after 
this time employed by the apostle, Coloss. iv. 7- 
Titus iii. 12. 2 Tim. iv. 12. Vide Index, Ty- 

CHICUS. 

The beloved Timothy (by some mischance we may 
well believe) was not with Paul on his quitting Cesarea : 
but he probably followed him without much loss of 
time, and he stayed with him at Rome to the end of 



94 PAUL AT CESAREA, BEFORE FESTUS. 

his first imprisonment. All the epistles from that city, 
excepting the Circular, to the Ephesians so called, 
carry the name of Timothy in the superscription. 



Acts xxv. 1. Now when Festus was come into the 
province, after three days he ascended from Cesarea 
to Jerusalem. 

c 2. Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews 
informed him against Paul, and besought him, 

3. And desired favour against him, that he would 
send for him to Jerusalem, themselves forming a plot 
in the mean while to kill him by the way. 

4. But Festus (the providence of God so ordered 
it) answered otherwise than they expected, that Paul 
should be kept at Cesarea, and that he himself would 
depart shortly thither. 

5. Let them therefore, said he, which among you 
are men of authority, go down with me, and accuse 
this man, if there be any wickedness in him. 

6. And when he had tarried among them more 
than ten days, he went down unto Cesarea ; and the 
next day sitting on the judgment-seat commanded Paul 
to be brought. 

7. And when he was come, the Jews which came 
down from Jerusalem, stood round about, and laid 
many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they 
were not able to prove. 

8. While he answered for himself, Neither against 
the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor 
yet against Cesar have I offended at all. 

9. But Festus now, 

— though fully aware that the question involved 
was one of religion only — 
yet, willing for the sake of popularity to do the Jews a 



PAUL BEFORE FESTUS. 95 

pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to 
Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before 
me? 

Acts xxv. 10. Then said Paul, I stand at Cesar's 
judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged : to the 
Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest 
— from the examination that has taken place. 

11. For if I be an offender, or have committed 
any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die : but if 
there be none of these things whereof these men accuse 
me, no man can lawfully give me up (or as it may be 
more strongly termed, sacrifice me) unto them. I ap- 
peal — even from thee as governor — unto Cesar. 

IS. Then Festus, when he had conferred with his 
counsel, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Cesar? unto 
Cesar shalt thou go. 

13. And after certain days king Agrippa and Ber- 
nice came unto Cesarea to salute Festus. 

14. And when they had been there several days, 
Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, 
There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix : 

15. About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the 
chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, 
desiring to have judgment against him. 

16. To whom I answered, It is not the manner of 
the Romans to give up any man to die, before that he 
which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have 
licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid 
against him. 

17. Therefore when they were come hither, with- 
out any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment 
seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth. 

18. Against whom when the accusers stood up, they 
brought none accusation of such things as I supposed : 

19. But had certain questions against him of their 



96 PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 

own religion, and of one Jesus which was dead, whom 
Paul affirmed to be alive. 

Acts xxv. 20. And because I doubted of such manner 
of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jeru- 
salem, and there be judged of these matters. 

21. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved 
unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be 
kept till I might send him to Cesar. 

22. Then Agrippa (being himself by birth a Jew) 
said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. 
To-morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him. 

23. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, 
and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into 
the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and prin- 
cipal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul 
was brought forth. 

24. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men 
which are here present with us, ye see this man, about 
whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, 
both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought 
not to live any longer. 

25. But when I found that he had committed no- 
thing worthy of death, and that he himself hath ap- 
pealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him. 

26. Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto 
my Lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before 
you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that after 
examination had, I might have something to write. 

27. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a 
prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid 
against him. 

A. xxvi. 1. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art 
permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched 
forth the hand, and answered for himself : 



PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 97 

Acts xxvi. 2. I think myself happy, king Agrippa, be- 
cause I shall answer for myself this day before thee touch- 
ing all the things whereof I am accused by the Jews : 

3. Especially because I know thee to be expert in 
all customs and questions which are among the Jews : 
wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 

4. My manner of life from my youth, which was at 
first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the 
Jews ; 

5. Which knew me from the beginning, if they 
would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our 
religion I lived a Pharisee. 

6. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of 
the promise (of the Messiah) made of God unto our 
fathers : 

7. Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly 
serving God day and night, hope to come. For which 
hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. 

8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
with you, that God should raise the dead ? 

— and yet my dispute with the Jews turns prin- 
cipally on that very point. Vide infra, v. 23 

9. I once indeed thought with myself, that I ought 
to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

10. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem : and 
many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having re- 
ceived authority from the chief priests : and when they 
were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 

11. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, 
and did my utmost to make them blaspheme (see the 
Note), and being exceedingly mad against them, I 
persecuted them even unto strange cities. 

12. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with au- 
thority and commission from the chief priests, 

H 



98 PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 

Acts xxvi. 13. At mid-day, O king, I saw in the 
way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the 
sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed 
with me. 

14. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I 
heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the 
Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

15. And I said, Who art thou, Lord ? And he 
said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 

16. But rise, and stand upon thy feet : for I have 
appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a 
minister and a witness both of these things which thou 
hast now seen, and of those things in the which I will 
hereafter appear unto thee ; 

17. Delivering thee from the (Jewish) people, and 
from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee, 

18. To open their eyes, that they may turn from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God, that so they may receive forgiveness of sins, and 
inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith 
that is in me. 

19. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not dis- 
obedient unto the heavenly vision : 

20. But showed first to them of Damascus, and 
throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the 
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and 
do works meet for repentance. 

21. For these causes the Jews caught me in the 
temple, and went about to kill me. 

22. Having therefore obtained that protection which 
God alone can give, I continue unto this day, witness- 
ing both to small and great, saying none other things 
than those which the prophets and Moses did say 
should come to pass : 



PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 99 

Acts xxvi. 23. That Christ (the Messiah) should 
suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise 
from the dead, and show light unto the people (of 
Israel) and to the Gentiles. 

24. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said 
with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself ; much 
learning doth make thee mad. 

25. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus ; 
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. 

26. For the king is well acquainted with these things, 
before whom also I speak freely : for I am persuaded 
that none of these things is unknown to him ; for this 
thing was not done in a corner. 

27. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? I 
know that thou believest. 

28. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian. 

29. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only 
thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both 
almost, and altogether such as I am, except these 
bonds. 

30. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose 
up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat 
with them : 

31. And when they were gone aside, they talked 
between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing 
worthy of death or of bonds. 

32. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man 
might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed 
unto Cesar. 



h 2 



100 PAUL ON THE VOYAGE FROM CESAREA. 

Acts xxvii. In regard of Luke the historian, whose 
we immediately, v. 1., shows itself, it is fair to presume 
that he had been previously the companion of Paul at 
Cesarea ; though no occasion to blend himself with 
the apostle, and to speak in united concern as he now 
does, we and us, had ever occurred before. 

How then had Luke in the mean while been occu- 
pied ? Nothing more likely, than, with all the advan- 
tages of that situation, in the composition of the Gospel 
which bears his name. 

T^ide Appendix E. on Luke and his Gospel, at 
Cesarea. 

xxvii. 1. And when it was determined that we 
should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain 
other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of 
Augustus' band. 

2. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we 
launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia ; Aris- 
tarchus a Macedonian of Thessalonica (one of the 
seven, xx. 4.) being along with us. 

3. And the next day we touched at Sidon. 

— Here also, as well as at Tyre, xxi. 3, 4., there 
were disciples and friends, previously known. 

And Julius 

— knowing doubtless the apostle's superiority to the 
other prisoners — 

courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to 
go unto his friends to refresh himself. 

4. And when we had launched from thence, we 
sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 

5. And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia 
and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. 

6. And there the centurion found a ship of 
Alexandria 



PAUL ON HIS VOYAGE TO ROME. 101 

— with a cargo of wheat for Rome, v. 38. — 
sailing into Italy ; and he put us therein. 

Acts xxvii. 7. And when we had sailed slowly many 
days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the 
wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over 
against Salmone ; 

8. And, with difficulty doubling the cape so called, 
came unto a place which is called The fair havens ; nigh 
whereunto was the city of Lasea. 

9. Now when much time was spent, and when sail- 
ing was now dangerous, because the fast (of expiation, 
about the equinox) was now already past, Paul admo- 
nished them, 

10. And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this 
voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only 
of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. 

11. Nevertheless the centurion believed the master 
and the owner of the ship, more than those things 
which were spoken by Paul. 

12. And because the haven was not commodious to 
winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, 
if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there 
to winter ; which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward 
the south-west and north-west. 

13. And when the south wind blew softly, suppos- 
ing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, 
they sailed close by Crete. 

14. But not long after there arose against it (the 
ship) a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon (a Le- 
vanter, now called). 

1.5. And when the ship was hurried away, and could 
not bear up against the wind, we let her drive, as she 
might. 

16. And running under a certain island which is 
called Clauda, we had much work to secure the boat : 

h 3 



102 PAUL ON HIS VOYAGE TO ROME. 

Acts xxvii. 17. Which when they had taken up 3 
they used helps, undergirding the ship ; and, fearing 
lest they should fall into the quicksands (the greater 
Syrtis on the African coast), strake sail, and so were 
driven. 

18. And as we were exceedingly tossed with the 
tempest, the next day they lightened the ship ; 

19. And the third day we cast out with our own 
hands the tackling of the ship. 

20. And when neither sun nor stars in many days 
appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope 
that we should be saved was then taken away. 

21. But after long abstinence (from regular food) 
Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, 
ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed 
from Crete, and so have saved this harm and loss. 

22. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer : 
for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, 
but of the ship only. 

23. For there stood by me this night the angel of 
God, whose I am, and whom I serve, 

24. Saying, Fear not, Paul ; thou must be brought 
before Cesar : and, lo, God hath given thee all them 
that sail with thee. 

25. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer : for I be- 
lieve God, that it shall be even as it was told me. 

26. Howbeit we must be cast on a certain island. 

27. But when the fourteenth night was come, # as 
we were driven up and down in the Adriatic sea, about 
midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to 
some country ; 

28. And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms : 
and when they had gone a little further, they sounded 
again, and found it fifteen fathoms. 

29. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon 



PAUL ON HIS VOYAGE TO ROME. 103 

rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and 
prayed for the day to come. 

Acts xxvii. 30. And as the shipmen were about to 
flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat 
into the sea, under colour as though they would have 
cast anchors out of the foreship, 

81. Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, 
Except these men abide in the ship, ye cannot be 
saved. 

32. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, 
and let her fall off. 

33. And while the day was coming on, Paul be- 
sought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the 
fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued 
fasting, — having taken nothing in the way of regular 
meals. 

34. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat : for 
this is in favour of your preservation : for there shall 
not an hair fall from the head of any of you. 

35. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, 
and gave thanks to God in presence of them all : and 
when he had broken it, he began to eat. 

36. Then were they all of good cheer, and they 
also took some meat. 

37. And we were in all in the ship two hundred 
threescore and sixteen souls. 

38. And when they had eaten enough, they light- 
ened the ship, and cast out the wheat (vid. v. 6.) into 
the sea. 

39. And when it was day, they knew not the land : 
but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the 
which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust 
in the ship. 

40. And cutting away the anchors they let them 
go into the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and 

h 4 



104 PAUL IN THE SHIPWRECK, AT MALTA. 

hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward 
shore. 

Acts xxvii. 41. And falling into a place where two 
seas met, they ran the ship aground ; and the forepart 
stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder 
part was broken with the violence of the waves. 

42. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the pri- 
soners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. 

43. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept 
them from their purpose ; and commanded that they 
which could swim should cast themselves first into the 
sea, and get to land : 

44. And the rest, some on boards, and some on 
broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that 
all who were on board escaped safe to land* 

xxviii. 1. And when they were escaped, then they 
knew that the island was called Melita, now Malta. 
T^ide Malta in the Index. 

2. And the barbarous people 

— ■ so called only from their foreign language, as 

being of Phoenician origin — 
showed us no little kindness : for they kindled a fire, 
and received us all, because of the present rain, and be- 
cause of the cold. 

3. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, 
and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the 
heat, and fastened on his hand. 

4. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast 
hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No 
doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath 
escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 

5. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt 
no harm. 

6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, 



PAUL AT MALTA, ON THE WAY TO ROME. 105 

or fallen down dead suddenly : but after they had 
looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, 
they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 

Acts xxviii. 7» In the same quarters were possessions 
of the chief man (i. e. governor) of the island, whose 
name was Publius ; who received us, and lodged us 
three days courteously. 

8. And it came to pass that the father of Publius 
lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux : to whom Paul 
entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and 
healed him. 

9. So when this was done, others also, which had 
diseases in the island, came, and were healed : 

10. Who also honoured us with many honours; 
and when we departed, they laded us with such things 
as were necessary 

11. And after three months we departed in a ship 
of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose 
sign was Castor and Pollux. 

12. And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three 
days. 

13. And from thence we fetched a compass, and 
came to Rhegium ; and after one day the south wind 
blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli : 

14. Where (without expecting it, vide Note on 
xxi. 4.) we found brethren, and were desired to tarry 
with them seven days : and then we went toward 
Rome. 

— To which city the tidings of Paul's arrival on the 
coast had been immediately carried. 

15. And from thence, when the brethren heard of 
us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum, and 
The Three Taverns : whom when Paul saw, he thanked 
God, and took courage. 



106 PAUL AT ROME. 

How beautifully does all this, in point of realised 
fact 3 correspond with those auspicious beginnings of 
the gospel, to which, by the salutations in Rom. ch. xvi., 
such distinct evidence is borne. Vide here on A. 
xx. 3. p. 69. 



Acts xxviii. 16. And when we came to Rome, the 
centurion delivered the other prisoners to the captain of 
the guard : but Paul was allowed to dwell by himself 
with the soldier who guarded him. 

— He was bound to that soldier by a single chain, 
Eph. vi. 19, 20. H. P. 130. 

17. And it came to pass, that after three days Paul 
called the chief of the Jews together : and when they 
were come together, he said unto them, Men and 
brethren, though I have committed nothing against the 
people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered 
prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 

18. Who, when they had examined me, would have 
let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 

19. But when the Jews spake against it, I was con- 
strained to appeal unto Cesar \ not that I had aught to 
accuse my nation of. 

20. For this cause therefore have I called for you, 
to see you and to speak with you : because that for the 
hope of Israel (in the promised Messiah) I am bound 
with this chain. 

21. And they said unto him, We neither received 
letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the 
brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. 

22. But we desire to hear of thee what thou think- 
est : for as concerning this sect (that of Christians), we 
know that it is every where spoken against. 

23. And when they had appointed him a day, there 



PAUL AT ROME. 107 

came many to him into his lodging ; to whom he ex- 
pounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading 
them concerning Jesus (as being the Messiah), both 
out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from 
morning till evening. 

Acts xxviii. 24. And some believed the things 
which were spoken, and some believed not. 

25. And when they agreed not among themselves, 
they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, 
Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet 
(Is. vi. 9.) unto our fathers, 

26. Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing 
ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye 
shall see, and not perceive : 

27. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, 
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have 
they closed ; lest they should see with their eyes, and 
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, 
and should be converted, and I should heal them. 

28. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salva- 
tion of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they 
will hear it. 

29. And when he had said these words, the Jews 
departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 

30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own 
hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 

— with a freedom of access, such as that enjoyed for 
the two years at Cesarea, xxiv. 23. 27. 

31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with 
all confidence, no man forbidding him. 



108 paul at rome. 

Paul at Rome, 

the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles... and 
their ambassador in bonds. Eph. iii. 1., vi. 20., and 
H. P. 143.. .6. 



The materials of sacred history must henceforth be 
drawn from the remaining epistles, themselves as the 
principal matter investigated, and directly or indirectly 
supplying all other information. 

And first of those four written from Rome, that to 
the Ephesians, with those to the Colossians and 
Philemon ; and, lastly, that to the Philippians, at 
some interval from the others. 

The epistle to the Ephesians, commonly so entitled, 
for reasons of the strongest and clearest kind, which 
may be read in H. P. pp. 125... 8., is to be considered 
as "a circular epistle, equally intended for several com- 
munities of Asia Minor," and certainly not for Ephesus 
alone, as it stands now inscribed. On the ground of 
that persuasion, we may without scruple proceed. 

Since the time, Acts xx. 17-, that Paul himself last 
visited Lydian Asia (as Dr. Paley calls it, H. P. 37.), it 
might be supposed, that his knowledge of what was 
passing in those regions must have been very much in- 
terrupted, and the exercise of his apostolic influence 
greatly diminished. Quite otherwise, apparently. Whe- 
ther lately at Cesarea or now at Rome a prisoner, in 
the distant East or the remote West, the "daily care 
of all the churches" (2 Cor. xi. 28.) never seems with 
him to have known any respite. And if this Epistle to 
the Ephesians, so called, really was a circular, first 
addressed to Laodicea, then to Hierapolis perhaps, 
(Coloss. iv. 13.) and so on to other neighbouring 



PAUL AT ROME. 109 

societies of believers, it must be allowed to demonstrate 
a very lively interest kept up with all that part of Asia. 

The Epistle to the Colossians next demands our 
attention. Sent from Rome by the same messenger, 
Tychicus, who carried that to the Ephesians so called, 
while on the one hand it indicates the apostle to be 
personally unknown to the church at Colossae, on the 
other, and unlike that which bore it company, it is dis- 
tinctly seen to be addressed to one church alone, and 
directly so from the first. 

That epistle to the Romans does not present at its 
conclusion stronger proofs of individuality as to the city 
addressed, than this to Colossae exhibits in its (iv.) last 
chapter ; which from v. 7. to the end beautifully tells 
us, by what devoted friends, Colossians, or by report 
well known to the Colossians, the apostle was now at- 
tended at Rome. 



Coloss. iv. 7- All my state shall Tychicus declare 
unto you, 

— already known as one of Paul's companions in 
travel, A. xx. 4 

who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and 
fellow-servant in the Lord : 

8. Whom I have sent unto you for the same pur- 
pose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your 
hearts ; 

9. With Onesimus (the converted slave of Phile- 
mon), a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. 
They shall make known unto you all things which are 
done here. 

10. Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner 

— probably so at the time by voluntary affection, but 
vide H. P. 192. Note. — 



110 PAUL AT ROME. 

saluteth you, and Marcus fnow deeply attached to 
him), sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye re- 
ceived commandments : if he come unto you — on a 
mission from me ere long — receive him kindly ;) 

Coloss. iv. 11. And Jesus, which is called Justus, 
who are of the circumcision. 

— This Justus, therefore, must have been different 
from the Corinthian so named, A. xviii. 6, 7.5 who 
was a Gentile convert. — 

These last-named persons, and these alone, of the cir- 
cumcision — he remarks it with sorrow — are my fellow- 
workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a 
comfort unto me. 

12. Epaphras, 

— then recently employed as messenger between 
Rome and Colossse, i. 7> 8. — 

who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, 
always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye 
may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 

13. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal 
for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in 
Hierapolis. 

14. Luke, the beloved physician, 

— during the two years at Rome, A. xxviii, 30., the 
personal attendant of Paul — 

and Demas 

— who at a later period, 2 Tim. iv. 10., forsook him — 
greet you. 

15. Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and 
Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. 

16. And when this epistle is read among you, cause 
that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans ; 
and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. 

— The " epistle from Laodicea" was an epistle sent 
by Paul to that church, and from them to be trans- 



PAUL AT ROME. Ill 

mitted to Colossae. Why might it not be that to the 
Ephesians so called? H. P. 128, 9. 

Coloss. iv. 17. And say to Archippus, 
— " our fellow-soldier, 5 ' Philem. ver. c 2., i. e. " Sol- 
dier of Jesus Christ," 2 Tim. ii. 3 

Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in 
the Lord, that thou fulfil it. 

18. The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Re- 
member my bonds — they are worn for your sake. 
Grace be with you. Amen. 

Written — and this is one of the few correct sub- 
scriptions, H. P. 195 from Rome to the Colossians 

by Tychicus and Onesimus. 



These two epistles, to the Ephesians and to the 
Colossians, although differing in some essential cir- 
cumstances both of a local and personal nature, yet 
" import to be two letters written by the same person, 
at, or nearly at, the same time, and upon the same sub- 
ject, and to have been sent by the same messenger." 
And " every thing" accordingly "in the sentiments, 
order, and diction of the two writings," as Dr. Paley, 
with great abundance of proof, has demonstrated, " cor- 
responds with what might be expected from this circum- 
stance of identity or cognation in their original." 
H. P. 108. ..125. 

The short but exquisite epistle to Philemon (him- 
self a Colossian, EL P. 190, 1.) as a natural pendant 
follows that to the Colossians, and has like that the 
name of Timothy in the superscription. It was sent 
at the same time to the same place by his recovered 
slave Onesimus (Coloss. iv. 7-««9.) who bore Tychicus 
company on that errand. 

On the same or nearly the same persons being joined 



112 PAUL AT ROME: THE PHILIPIANS. 

in Paul's salutation to the individual as to the church 
at Colossae, the remarks of Dr. Paley are, as usual, 
exact and satisfactory. H. P. 19 1, 2. 



Epistle to the Philippians. 

" Our epistle purports to have been written near the 
conclusion of St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, and 
after a residence in that city of considerable duration." 
H. P. 139, 40., all which is made out by Dr. Paley, 
with his usual acuteness and sagacity. 

In like manner it appears that the supply which the 
Philippians were accustomed to send for the apostle's 
subsistence and relief, had been lately delayed from the 
want of opportunity, and that Epaphroditus, under 
grievous sickness, and at the peril of his life, had now 
conveyed their liberality to Rome, H. P. 133, 4. 

But much more than this is seen in the apostle's own 
retrospect ; which on the limited scale of the Acts 
could not there be told. Their early munificence, un- 
exampled from any other body of Christian brethren 
(nor would he from those elsewhere accept pecuniary 
aid), had followed him, it seems, first to Thessalonica 
once and again during his stay in that city, Philip, iv. 
15, 16., and afterwards, when he had departed out of 
Macedonia, probably to Athens, certainly to Corinth. 
H. P. 136, 7- 



On the perusal of this epistle, it has been justly 
remarked, that the Philippians should seem not to have 
afforded a single subject of complaint. In the absence, 
then, of all censure or rebuke from the pen of the 
apostle, and with the strong testimony borne (" with 



PAUL AT ROME : THE PHILIPPIANS. 118 

joy") to the goodness of their disposition, the question 
may naturally arise : how came the church of Philippi 
thus to appear the most pure, the most affectionate, the 
most generous of all the churches in that day ? 

To one great peculiarity in the circumstances of 
Philippi we may fairly, in the first place, attribute some 
effect in producing their marked superiority as a 
Christian church : Philippi was exempt from a Jewish 
population. 

In that city, it is quite clear from A. xvi. 13. that 
there was no synagogue, and of course therefore but a 
very small number of Jews. At the Proseucha or place 
of prayer on the sabbath, " the women" only "which 
resorted there," are mentioned. And Lydia, the devout 
Gentile, with her household, is specified in a manner that 
seems to indicate one person amongst a few of the same 
kind. At the close of the chapter, v. 40., " the 
brethren" could not be many : they all met in " the 
house of Lydia." 

From these considerations, we are at liberty to infer, 
that the Philippians were free from persecuting Jews, 
and from converts of a Judaising spirit. Nor does the 
brief and general caution given in iii. 2, 3. to " beware 
of the concision," as he calls circumcision by way of con- 
tempt, at all necessitate a different supposition. The 
neighbourhood, or no great distance, of Thessalonica 
and even of Bersea, might well justify some apprehen- 
sion of such danger, if bigots or false brethren from 
either of those places occasionally visited Philippi. 

Upon this view of the subject I am inclined to 
interpret what the apostle says, when he addresses the 
Philippian believers, ii. 15., as being " in the midst of a 
crooked and perverse generation," or when he bids 
them, i. 27, 8., " strive together for the faith of the 
gospel, and in nothing be terrified by your adversaries," 



114 PAUL AT ROME'. THE PHILIPPI ANS> 

that is, the Judaising Christians, And to those false 
and unworthy professors also, not as found at Philippi, 
but elsewhere, the apostle seems clearly to refer, when 
he appeals to his own former description of them in 
these solemn words. 

Philip, iii. 18. For many walk, of whom I have told 
you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are 
the enemies of the cross of Christ : 

19. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their 
belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly 
things. 



But this exemption from the persecution of Jews or 
from their Judaising spirit when nominal Christians, 
however advantageous it might be to the domestic 
peace and pure faith of the Philippian church, will 
leave the moral superiority of the converts there still 
unexplained. Nor will it be adequately accounted for, 
if we remark however truely the absence of Greek phi- 
losophy and Greek vices alike from Philippi. That 
consideration alone did not protect the converts in 
Galatia, chiefly consisting of rude Gentiles, from the 
severity of apostolic remonstrance (Gal. iv. 14... 26.) 
against all the grosser works of the flesh ; to which, 
therefore, it is very clear, those Galatians were by habit 
and nature abundantly prone. 

In addressing other churches, whether at Thes- 
salonica, or at Corinth, or in Asia, or at Rome, 
(1 Thess. iv. 1...8. 1 Cor. v. 11., vi. 9.. .11. 
Eph. v. 1...18. Rom. vi. 19. and elsewhere,) the 
apostle strongly refers to the past state, if yet it was 
past, of low immorality, as well as of religious blind- 
ness, in which the gospel had found them. 

With language like this, the style in which he gene- 



PAUL AT ROME: THE PHILIPPIANS. 115 

rally speaks to others, only contrast the following 
peroration to the Philippians : 

iv. 8. " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things." 

Can one fail to discover here a tone of address, in 
the diction as well as in the topics, totally unlike what 
is to be read any where else ? The" Philippians are ap- 
pealed to, it is evident, on the ground of moral senti- 
ments which they antecedently cherished and acknow- 
ledged. The gospel had found them already "showing 
the work of the law written in their hearts, and doing 
by nature the things contained in the law." Rom. ii. 
14, 15. 

In whatever degree the inference here contended for 
is conceded, the question will arise : from whence this 
moral superiority, this higher standard of recognised 
duties ? 1 answer briefly : from the origin of the Phi- 
lippians, as Roman colonists, as descendants, that is, of 
the simple and unvitiated r,ural population of Italy. 
They were descended from Sabine or Apulian country- 
men, or from others of congenial blood ; who, after the 
successes of Julius and Augustus Caesar, had lost by 
confiscation their paternal lands to enrich the veterans 
of the conqueror, and had been themselves transplanted 
into the colonies of Philippi and Dyrrachium. The 
fact itself is well known on the authority, oft quoted, 
of Dio Cassius, lt. 4. 

Now, if ever the natural virtues had a lodging in the 
human breast, the rural population of that country 
which was destined to subdue the nations of the earth, 
must be allowed to have afforded it : rather, let me say, 

i 2 



116 PAUL AT ROME'. THE PHILIPPIANS. 

the moral excellence of ancient Rome was the great 
instrument, under the direction of an over-ruling Pro- 
vidence, by which the world itself was conquered. On 
this interesting subject, the distinct impressions of my 
mind have been recorded also in another place.* 

Briefly then, it was from such a parentage of virtuous 
exiles, that the Philippians inherited that simplicity, 
probity, and purity of manners, to which the singular 
exhortation of Paul to the Philippians, iv. 8., is in- 
debted for its explanation at once and its truth. 



Before concluding this notice of the epistle, we may 
observe, that Paul, having as yet no certain prescience 
of what awaited him, thought it best to send back 
Epaphroditus, immediately, ii. 25., and expressed his 
hope, v. 23., presently to send Timothy also ; while in 
the strong expectation of early deliverance, the apostle 
trusted, v. 24., he should himself visit them shortly. 
The more favourable supposition was realised in his 
being soon after set free ; and in consequence of that 
event, he appears to have detained Timothy along with 
him to be his coadjutor now in certain intermediate 
designs, which will be seen in the course of these 
pages. 

Nor may it be omitted, that the absence of Luke's 
name from the salutation to the Philippians by whom 
he was so well known, indicates the later date of this 
epistle. Luke was with Paul at the time of writing 
that to the Colossians. Where he now might be, and 
in what task occupied, shall form the subject of a sepa- 
rate dissertation. Appendix E. 



* Horatius Restitutus. 1837. (pp. 108. ..110.) 



PAUL AT ROME! THE PHILIPPIANS. 117 

Of Paul's liberation from his first imprisonment at 
Rome, which terminated his long persecution by the 
Jews, nothing particular is known, beyond the fact 
itself; except the probability, that he was indebted for 
his deliverance to the intercession of some excellent 
man in the palace of the Emperor — an inference na- 
turally enough founded on the following texts : 

Philip, i. 12. The things which have happened unto 
me, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the 
gospel ; 

13. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all 
the palace, and in all other places. 

iv. 22, All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are 
of Cesar's household. 



And here ends the Second Part of this work. 



I S 



118 



PART III. 

THE FOURTH AND LAST APOSTOLIC PROGRESS, 
FROM ROME TO ROME AGAIN. 

And now after two years at Caesarea, after a long 
and dangerous voyage, and after two years at Rome, 
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles is set free 
from Jewish persecution. 

Paul is once more at liberty. 

Before we advance to the next stage of the sacred 
narrative in such intelligence as may be elicited from 
investigating the two Epistles, the first to Timothy, 
and that to Titus ; let us briefly review what appears 
to have been the situation at this time of those the 
three principal parties concerned. 

The apostle then, once more a free man, is to be con- 
sidered as under the promise or declared wish and in- 
tention to visit Colossse, Philem. ver. 22., and after- 
wards Philippi, Phil. i. 25, 6. Vide H. P. 168, 9. 
And Timothy now with him, Phil. i. 1., of course is 
prepared to go wherever duty may call, with his be- 
loved and venerated friend. 

Of Titus, whose name no where is mentioned during 
Paul's imprisonment at Rome, it appears highly pro» 
bable at least ; that as he was sent by the apostle from 
Philippi to Corinth, 2 Cor. viii. 17., and clearly did 
not form one of his company, A. xx. 4., when depart- 
ing from that city, he must have staid at Corinth pur- 
posely and by appointment, as on a scene of spiritual 
usefulness, where he both felt great affection for the 



PAUL ON HIS DEPARTURE FROM ROME. 119 

brethren, and was in return on all accounts personally 
honoured by them ; 2 Cor. viii. 16, 17. 23. 

It is important to remark, that between the two sister 
Epistles (1 Tim. and Tit.) which we now proceed to 
investigate, a great visible affinity not only obtains in 
the subject of the letters, but extends very often to the 
phrases and expressions in both. H. P. 186. And the 
most natural account which can be given of the many 
such resemblances pointed out by Dr. Paley, "is to 
suppose, that the two epistles were written nearly at 
the same time, and while the same ideas and phrases 
dwelt in the writer's mind." 

Dr. Paley goes on to show, that certain notes of time 
also extant in the two epistles distinctly favour that 
supposition, p. 188. Whatever proof therefore is ad- 
duced to establish the date of the one, equally tends 
to fix within a short interval that of the other epistle. 
And in placing the date of 1 Tim. at a period subse- 
quent to Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, I entirely 
concur with Dr. Paley, H. P. I67., as he follows Bishop 
Pearson, whose arguments there referred to, p. 168., 
carry to my mind the force of complete demonstration. 

If both the epistles then were written subsequently 
to that period of time with which the Acts of the 
Apostles terminate, or if we may be allowed to assume 
it so, till the assumption work itself clear through a 
stream of consistent circumstances ; the narrative, con- 
structed on what Dr. Paley, H. P. 189., calls an " hypo- 
thetic journey," may thus be traced in all its stages along. 

Paul then with the faithful Timothy is ready for that 
journey first into Asia and then into Macedonia, to 
which the apostle, in the event of his liberation, was in 
some measure pledged. But a third person is wanted 

1 4 



120 PAUL ON HIS DEPARTURE FROM ROME. 

for the next stage of our progress, the " partner and 
fellow-helper Titus/' 2 Cor. viii. 23. ; and from the fre- 
quent intercourse between Corinth and Rome, amongst 
other strangers who came on that pious errand, why- 
might not he too very easily visit Paul, towards the 
close of his imprisonment ? 

Whatever cause, now lost beyond conjecture, had first 
planted the gospel in the isle of Crete (Jews certainly 
were there, A. ii. 11.), if the great apostle was only 
once acquainted with a door being there opened to him 
of the Lord (2 Cor. ii. 12.) what follows may easily be 
imagined. Instead of sailing away directly to Ephesus, 
the holy triumvirate took their departure for that island. 
The rest follows of course. Paul would soon accomplish 
the formation of some churches and the establishment 
of others in the faith. And as Timothy, we know, was 
destined for high services elsewhere, the episcopal labour 
of carrying on what the apostle had begun, was com- 
mitted to Titus not the least excellent of his many coad- 
jutors in the gospel. 

Leaving Titus for a while in Crete, and taking 
Timothy along with him, on their arrival in Asia, Paul 
would naturally make good his promise, Philem. 
ver. 22., and visit Colossae ; while of his kind reception 
at Ephesus 

— Paul at Ephesus the third time — 

by Onesiphorus a fellow-labourer in the vineyard, and 
of Timothy's being there to witness it, we are explicitly 
informed by the apostle himself at a later day. 2 Tim. 

i. 17- 

In the important city of Ephesus a large field had 
long been open for the growth of the gospel, but not 
without its thorns and its tares, its vexations and its 
troubles. Timothy, who would rather have gone to his 



PAUL IN MACEDONIA. 12 L 

favourite spot Philippi, being besought by Paul, 1 Tim. 
i. 3., to abide still in that city at least for a while, re- 
mained there on the difficult station. And Paul having 
ulterior objects, attended now by Ty chic us (whom he 
would find at Colossae or elsewhere in Asia), departed 
from Ephesus to go into Macedonia : but by his usual 
route of Troas, be it remembered, when lodging at the 
house of Carpus and there, intending, it might be, to 
return ere long that way into Asia, he left behind him 
" the cloke and the parchments," 2 Tim. iv. 13. 

Titus then is left in Crete and Timothy in Ephesus, 
each on a temporary not a permanent commission : and 
the apostle we must suppose to be occupied in revisit- 
ing and confirming the Macedonian churches. 

Paul the fourth time at Philippi, &c. 

In this state of things, the apostle who had left Timo- 
thy under the expectation of his early return, if now at 
Philippi, is within reach of tidings from the brethren in 
the confines of Illyricum ; the neighbourhood, in which 
some years before, A. xx. 2. Rom. xv. 19. H. P. 24, 
25. he had " fully preached the gospel of Christ." 
Vide H. P. 77., and also the note at p. 78. 

While yet somewhat uncertain whether to advance 
again into that region, and visit the churches which he 
had there planted, Paul thinks of Timothy and of his 
gentle nature now left alone in that trying scene of 
Ephesus, and writes to him, out of Macedonia, H. P. 
188., the first of the epistles so entitled. 

First Epistle to Timothy. 

And as in that solemn address to the elders of the 
church of Ephesus, A. xx. 29, 30., delivered at Miletus, 
he had formerly predicted that after his departing grie- 
vous wolves would enter in among them not sparing 



122 PAUL WRITES TO TIMOTHY. 

the flock, and that of their own selves should men 
arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after 
them ; we may well believe, that even after the apostle's 
late visit to Ephesus a state of things, in whatever de- 
gree corresponding to that prediction,, would still impose 
a very arduous task upon Timothy. It would demand 
great perseverance for the entire correction of what had 
gone wrong in the church, and amongst other measures 
to that end the careful appointment of new and well qua- 
lified ministers in all its offices in every department. 
Accordingly, bishops and deacons are both specified, 
iii. 1...12., and elders also are separately named, v. VJ. 

At the close of his precepts and directions how Timo- 
thy should proceed in ordaining to those sacred func- 
tions, the apostle breaks the subject of his own absence, 
probably to be for some time prolonged, with great de- 
licacy ; and so prepares him for the disappointment that 
followed. 

" These things write I unto thee, hoping to come 
unto thee shortly : but if I tarry long" which he evi- 
dently supposes may happen, " that thou mayest know 
how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of 
God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar 
and ground of the truth, iii. 14, 15. And again, " Till 
1 come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to 
doctrine," iv. 13. 

With all the advantage of the great Roman road, the 
Via Egnatia # connecting Dyrrachium with Thessa- 
lonica and Philippi, Paul is now well situated for every 
purpose of communication with all the parts interjacent ; 
and allowing therefore but a short lapse of time after 
his writing the Epistle to Timothy, we may presume, 
that on gaining the requisite intelligence he has formed 

* So in Strabo ; but sometimes called Ignatia. 



PAUL WRITES TO TITUS. 123 

his plan at once to revisit those Christian communities 
in western Macedonia on the borders of Illyricum. 
And the line of his travels is now so clearly calculated, 
that he can even mark out Nicopolis, near Actium, as 
his place for wintering, on the coast of Epirus. 

In the course of his travels, and under all the circum- 
stances, H. P. 189.> Paul confiding in the faith and 
zeal and wisdom of Titus whom he had left in Crete, 
writes now 

— the Epistle to Titus — 

as well to instruct him farther in the discharge of epis- 
copal duties there, as to request his early presence and 
co-operation at Nicopolis, i. 5. But Titus is directed 
not to quit his present station in Crete, till either Arte- 
mon or Tychicus be sent by the apostle to occupy the 
office from which he retires, iii. 12. 

Titus, when he undertook that journey, would pass 
through Corinth of course, reviving all the ties of 
Christian love which he had formerly cherished in that 
place ; and there meeting with Erastus, a like-minded 
brother, took him as companion to his journey's end. 
After his arrival at Nicopolis, the head-quarters of Paul 
for the winter, we may naturally suppose the labours of 
Titus extended into Dalmatia ; for to that country, as 
to a province under his care, we shall find him, at a later 
period, taking his departure from Rome. 2 Tim. iv. 10. 

During all this time, where has Timothy been abid- 
ing ? Has he remained so long at Ephesus, where 
apparently, unless besought by Paul, he would hardly 
have staid in the first instance ? It is not, I think, too 
much to assume, that by some one of those many ar- 
rangements, as that of a special message, at the com- 
mand of the great apostle, Timothy in the mean while 



124 PAUL AT CORINTH AND EPHESUS. 

had been summoned to Philippi, there in his absence to 
preside over that pure and affectionate church. 

After the winter then is past, Paul resumes his 
travels, taking Titus along with him, and first to the 
eastward. At Corinth, one of their companions, Eras- 
tus, now chose to abide, 2 Tim. iv. 20., as it might be 
expected, in his own native city. H. P. 177. 

Paul, the third time at Corinth. 

But the apostle, after a short stay, crosses, as once 
before, A. xviii. 19., he had done, directly over to 
Ephesus ; 

— Paul at Ephesus the fourth time — 

and there "Alexander the coppersmith" did him 
"much evil:" u of whom" — so at a later day he 
writes to Timothy — " be thou ware also ; for he hath 
greatly withstood our words," 2 Tim. iv. 14, 15. On 
his return from Ephesus towards Italy, "Trophimus," 
he writes, ibid, v. 20., '* have I left at Miletum sick :" 
an article of narration, which however simple in itself 
has given rise to very just and important remarks. 
H. P. 177. and 135. 



125 



PART IV. 

THE RETURN OF PAUL TO ROME, HIS SECOND 
IMPRISONMENT THERE, AND THE CONCLUSION 
OF HIS LABOURS IN MARTYRDOM. 



Neither the duration of the apostle's liberty at Rome, 
after his return to that city, nor the nature of that 
offence which led to his second and worse imprison- 
ment, nor yet the circumstances- of what he calls his 
" first answer," or defence, 2 Tim. iv. 16., can be re- 
lated on any authentic grounds. And yet in the 
acknowledged paucity of materials to complete this 
apostolic history, happily many other facts, and some in 
Part III. already turned to account, are contained in 
the last epistle which he ever wrote, and that not long 
before his death, 

the Second Epistle to Timothy. 

That beloved coadjutor we lately fixed with fair pro- 
bability in Macedonia ; and the letter, if addressed to 
him there, will harmonise in all its particulars with 
facts otherwise known and apparent. With that hypo- 
thesis which would consider Timothy as being in Asia 
at the time, the principal facts will be found altogether 
incompatible. 

Before the epistle itself arrived with instructions so 
full and particular, it should seem that Timothy had 
received his commission generally how to proceed. He 
is addressed as being already aware of the main purpose 



126 PAUL AT ROME. 

of the epistle, his being delegated to visit the churches 
in Ephesus and the neighbourhood, on his way in 
returning from Macedonia to Rome. And in refer- 
ence to one evil especially, which it would behove him 
to strive against, he is reminded of the great backsliding 
that had recently taken place. " This thou know est, 
that all they which are in Asia be turned away from 
1116," i. 15. Nothing so probable, as that the Judaising 
teachers must have been intended by these words. 

We have supposed then, that under these circum- 
stances, and at the period of time here stated, this 
epistle was written to Timothy, then not at Ephesus 
nor in Asia, but at Philippi, and expecting his instruc- 
tions there. Let us now see how various subordinate 
matters go concurrently along with the supposition 
which we have thus distinctly advanced, or connect by 
natural retrospect the past with the present. 

i. Timothy, from Philippi to Ephesus, would take 
the route usual with them, by the way of Troas ; and 
from thence when he came, he was requested to bring 
what Paul had left behind him in the care of Carpus s 
iv. 13., the cloke and the parchments. On what other 
assignable plan could Timothy be so situated as to com- 
ply with the request ? 

This peculiar mention of Troas by the necessity 
which it involves, of a journey of Paul from Ephesus 
to Philippi, and of another, equally necessary, of Timo- 
thy from Philippi to Ephesus, not only affords a clue 
for that hitherto mysterious message, 2 Tim. iv. 13., 
but leads us to discover that former mission also of 
Timothy to Philippi, without which we should be at a 
loss to know, how he came to be in Macedonia at all 
when this epistle was addressed to him. 

ii. To Timothy, who had soon to visit Ephesus on 
his way back to Rome, iv. 9., it would be grateful in- 



PAUL AT ROME. 127 

telligence, to hear at Philippi, that Tychicus, evidently 
no common person, (deemed worthy as he was to relieve 
Titus in the spiritual government of Crete, Tit. iii. 12.) 
was actually sent to Ephesus, iv. 12., and commis- 
sioned (we may well believe) to act with permanent 
authority in that city. 

If Timothy had been already at Ephesus, he would 
have known of the arrival of Tychicus (as Michaelis 
justly remarks) without being thus informed of it by 
Paul. Tychicus would have carried the letter. 

iii. Of Trophimus's sickness, Timothy at Philippi 
would know nothing, in the common course of things. 
By Paul he is made aware that their old and faithful 
companion had been by him left sick at Miletus, iv. 20. 
Vide H. P. 177. 

iv. Nor again would Timothy know any thing of 
Erastus, and of his staying behind at Corinth when 
Paul returned from Nicopolis ; unless he had been in- 
formed of it by the apostle, v. 20. Vide H. P. 177« 

Both names, indeed, that of Erastus and that of 
Trophimus, are perhaps mentioned, to account for those 
persons not being with the apostle at the time : their 
names might have duely appeared else in the salutation. 

v. Then too, the notice of " Crescens" being gone 
" to Galatia," and " Titus unto Dalmatia, v. 10., each 
on a sacred errand from the apostle, would be peculiarly 
interesting to the mind of Timothy. 

In Paul's first visit to Galatia, Timothy bore him 
company, A. xvi. 6. p. 86. : and when the apostle revi- 
sited Galatia, A. xviii. 23. p. 56., he was his companion 
again. 

On the apostle's reaching the confines of Illyricum, 
A. xx. 2. p. 67 -j the same faithful attendant ministered 
to him (vide Timothy, Index, s. v.) in that first plant- 
ing of the gospel in those parts ; which was afterwards 



128 PAUL AT ROME. 

carried on by Paul in person, with the aid of Titus, and 
now lastly committed to the care of Titus as the dying 
charge of the apostle. 

vi. When Paul and Timothy were last at Ephesus 
together, they both of them enjoyed the kind ministra- 
tions of Onesiphorus, i. 18. The apostle had now to 
relate the recent tokens of his affectionate anxiety ex- 
perienced at Rome, where Onesiphorus himself was yet 
staying when he wrote, vv. 16, 17. His household is 
separately saluted as being at Ephesus, iv. 19. 

vii. We have seen that after Timothy was besought 
to abide in Ephesus when Paul for the last time went 
into Macedonia, 1 Tim. i. 3., the apostle undertook 
more extensive designs to the westward of Philippi, 
than he had previously, perhaps, contemplated. We 
have seen also in that First Epistle, hi. 14, 15., iv. 13., 
very strong intimations given, that he might not return 
by any means so soon as Timothy expected. And the 
various circumstances (if they have been here truely de- 
veloped) of his wintering at Nicopolis, of his returning, 
not by Philippi, where Timothy then was, but by Co- 
rinth, and thence after visiting Ephesus, to Rome, 
clearly show that a long separation had divided those 
Christian friends, when Paul wrote the Second Epistle. 

Well might the apostle, therefore, remember the 
natural tears shed by Timothy, i. 4., when now so long 
a time had elapsed since that " dearly beloved son" and 
he last parted at Ephesus. Timothy's misgivings, at 
their parting then from each other, seem to have been 
verified by the event. In this world, most probably, 
they never met again. 



Let us now return to the epistle, and see what far- 
ther can be collected from it towards completing the 
sacred narrative. 



PAUL AT ROME. 129 

The apostle, when writing to the Philippians, 
Phil. i. 23... 6., was " in a strait betwixt two, having a 
desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far 
better :" nevertheless, as it was more needful for them 
that he should abide in the flesh, so "having this confi- 
dence," he says, " I know that I shall abide and con- 
tinue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith : 
that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus 
Christ for me by my coming to you again." And we 
have seen, where Paul is recorded for the fourth time 
at Philippi, that he did shortly come unto them, as he 
trusted in the Lord he should be enabled to do. ii. C M*. 

If such was the tone of his feelings and expectations 
in the epistle written during his first imprisonment, 
which then indeed was drawing to its close ; we shall 
find a different state of things with a different style of 
language in the epistle now before us. 

It is very true, that he there exhorts Timothy, 
iv. 9... 21. " Do thy diligence to come shortly to me," 
and again, "to come before winter:" an exhortation 
which implies his hope at least that it might be accom- 
plished. Nor would he so earnestly request Timothy 
to bring with him, iv. 13., " the books, especially the 
parchments ;" but in the expectation that he might be 
spared, whatever they were, to reap some advantage 
from having them in his possession. And when his 
remembrance of the tears shed by Timothy at their 
last meeting inspires the apostle with a longing to see 
him once more, that he might be filled with joy, i. 4., 
a wish like this would hardly have been declared by 
him, unless with some likelihood of hope that it might 
be realised. 

And yet, if on the one hand, in writing thus, the 
apostle appears to anticipate his longer continuance on 

K 



ISO PAUL AT ROME. 

earth ; the leading scope of the epistle agrees well with 
his apprehension of that different issue of things, for 
which it is calculated to provide. Thus, in his anxiety 
for Timothy's early coming " before winter," and in 
the desire that Mark should be brought with him, 
iv. 11., we may see the foresight of the apostle exer- 
cised : that they should receive his last instructions and 
assist him in the ministry during the few months that 
he might yet have to live. 

The very particularity also with which he states the 
circumstances of several persons as connected with him 
in the care of all the churches, taken along with the 
matters of solemn charge and personal instruction to 
Timothy himself, altogether leave a presentiment upon 
the mind, that the apostle, if not addressing his last 
farewell to one so dearly beloved, was at all events pro- 
viding against the occurrence of his own martyrdom ; 
if it should take place before Timothy, situated as he 
was, could arrive in Rome, and find him there yet 
alive. 

If ever of one holy man upon earth on the eve of his 
departure from it, we may believe that a clear assurance 
of heaven was vouchsafed to him, we may without 
scruple so believe of St. Paul ; who had already in 
beatific vision enjoyed a foretaste of what was to come. 
And after so many trying scenes of faith, charity, and 
patient endurance divinely exercised in the service of 
his Great Master for the salvation of souls, what is it 
that we read when the close of such a life draws nigh ? 
Solemn declarations like these of his own sure and cer- 
tain hope of future blessedness ; as his last bequest of 
consolation and joy to all those who after his bright ex- 
ample of patience and faith, however otherwise inferior, 
yet do seek to inherit the promises. 






PAUL AT ROME. 131 

2 Tim. iv. 6. I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. 

7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith : 

8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall 
give me at that day : and not to me only, but to all 
them also that love his appearing. 



16. At my first answer (?'. e. defence) no man stood 
with me, but all men forsook me : 

— that is, all who by their countenance or testimony 
could have served him at such a time ; perhaps, some 
like those at an earlier day (Phil. iv. 22.) that were 
" of Caesar's household." 
I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. 

17. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and 
strengthened me ; that by me the preaching might be 
fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear : and 
I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 

18. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil 
work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom : 
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 



In that day of atrocious tyranny under Nero, we cannot 
wonder at the apostle's being forsaken by false or timid 
friends on the first hearing of his cause : nor can we 
doubt that on his second defence that spirit of malignity 
which sought his life, at length gained its object. 

K 2 



132 PAUL AT ROME. 

What briefly remains, shall be told in the authentic 
language of Clemens Romanus (Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, s. 5.), who relates, that he suffered as a martyr 
at Rome under the governors (Nero and his minister 
Helius). From Eusebius (Eccl. History, B. ii. ch. xxv.) 
we farther learn, that whereas the apostle Peter was 
crucified, the apostle of the Gentiles (as being a Roman 
citizen) was beheaded. In the same season of persecu- 
tion, apparently, both those blessed saints were crowned 
with martyrdom, and both entered into the joy of their 
Lord. 



133 



NOTES, 

CRITICAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 



Acts viii. 2. p. 2. " good and pious men" — 
on this being the preferable rendering, and why it is 
so, vide Note below, A. xi. 20. 

A. ix. 20. p. 4. The true reading here is not X.purTov, 
which our Version expresses thus... " preached Christ 
that he is the Son of God"... but 'lyo-ow, the Lectio in- 
dubie genuina of Griesbach. The doctrine, which 
Paul preached, was this : Jesus of Nazareth is the Son 
of God, the promised Messiah. See xviii. 5. 

A. xi. 20. p. 9. On r 'ExA7jv££, Greeks, and 'Ex- 
ATjwo-ra), Grecians. 

The false reading here, 'E^rjuiG-rag, Grecians, or 
foreign Jews who did not speak Hebrew, (though it 
might be curious to trace by what erroneous notion 
that change could ever find its way into the text,) must 
be discarded at once, and the Lectio indubie genuina 
of Griesbach, rf ~E^rjvag, Greeks, be admitted in its 
stead, with the signification of Gentile proselytes. 



k 3 



134 NOTES. (A. xi. 20. GREEKS AND GRECIANS.) 

At this point in the progress of the Gospel, ap- 
parently, direct converts from heathenism had not yet 
been made : and by the words 'loufiouoi therefore and 
r, EiK\r}vsg, when as elsewhere in immediate antithesis or 
even as here, vv. 19, 20. in the same context, are clearly 
meant Jews, such by birth as well as by faith, and 
Gentile proselytes who had become worshippers of the 
one true God. 

In the following passages, xiv. 1. and xviii. 4. the 
word r/ ExX7jv££, immediately coupled with, 'IouSooo/, and 
translated Greeks, is found to retain the same relative 
meaning. 

But in xix. 10. 17., at a more advanced stage of the 
Christian history, that word seems to have acquired, 
naturally enough, the more extensive acceptation of 
Gentile converts, whether they had been, or not, pro- 
selytes before. 

With a view to this general distinction, highly im- 
portant as it is, let me remark, that unfortunately the 
English word, devout, in our Version, instead of being 
used only to indicate those persons, sua-sSelg or (rs£6fj.svoi, 
devout Gentiles, i. e. proselytes to the Jewish faith, has 
been assigned, as in viii. 2. to evTiaGaTg, good and pious 
men, Jews converted to Christianity ; or as in ii. 5. 
where the same Greek word ewXa£si£, religious men, 
evidently designates Jews of the dispersion, and nothing 
else. 

When however it is said, that in the whole of that 
enumeration, ch. ii. from v. 9. " Parthians" to Cretes 
and Arabians" in v. 11. Jews of the dispersion and no 
other persons were meant ; let one exception be care- 
fully marked, that from Rome, but apparently from 
no other place, proselytes also were included in that 
catalogue. 



NOTES. (A. xiii. 44.) 135 

In v. 10. xoLi ol s7ri$r){j.o<jVT£g Vo)[j.ouoi, louhalot TS xou 
7rpo(rr[KuToi, two classes of Roman strangers are clearly- 
denoted : 

" and strangers from Rome, as well Jews as prose- 
lytes from that city." 



And here, before concluding, let it be remarked also 
from vi. 1. 

" In those days when there arose a murmuring 
of the Grecians, 'ExKyjUig-tcov, against the Hebrews, 
'Efipaloug," 

that Grecians, or foreign Jews who did not usually 
at least speak Hebrew, must have been at that time in 
considerable numbers sojourning at Jerusalem. Other- 
wise, there could hardly have arisen that complaint 
from the disciples or Christian converts, of that class 
of men, that their w T idows and female relatives were 
neglected in the daily ministration ; while those be- 
longing to converts, of the native Jews there, were 
unduly favoured. 

The only other genuine text, A. ix. 29. where 'Ea- 
T^vkttou occurs, will be found at p. 7. in its proper 
place ; and it is there explained according to the sig- 
nification of Grecians observed in these pages. 



Acts xiii. 44. p. 17. Here the Lectio indubie ge- 
nuina of Griesbach is, 'E^joVtcov hi aurcov, 7rapsxa7^ouu elg 
to ^sra^u g-6l$&oltov T^aT^rfirivai altrolg tol pr^ara raOra, 
which justifies the translation given in these pages. 

k 4 



136 NOTES. (A. xiii. 50. GAL. ii. 6. ACTS, xvii. 14.— xx. 8.) 

Acts xiii. 50. p. 18. The original Greek in the Lectio 
indubie genuina, rag <rsfiofj.£va,g yuvouxag, rag z\j<r-£r\- 
povag, corresponds in meaning to the translation here 
given. Our version expresses it ambiguously at least. 

Galat. ii. b\ p. 24. Raphelius, after Grotius and 
others, thus briefly and clearly states the peculiarity of 
the original Greek ; which in the translation here given, 
is preserved as far as the difference of the languages 
will allow. 

*A7ro hi rcbv boxovvTcov.'] Cceperat ita instituere ser- 
monem apostolus, quasi dicturus esset, ano r&v hoxoou- 
Twu shai ri, ou$sv 7rpoa-£X<xfio[xr}v. Sed interjecta pa- 
renthesi repetiit vocem hoxodvrsg, et subintulit ovbev 
TrpocavsGevTo, i. e. addiderunt. He goes on to remark, 
very justly, that such irregular expressions are of fre- 
quent occurrence in Herodotus, &c. 

Acts xvii. 14. p. 44. Our version of the Greek words, 
cog £7r) tt}v ^cLhaa-G-av, "to go as it were to the sea," ex- 
presses nothing wrong in the least, if a feint had been 
practised on such an occasion : but the simple meaning 
of the original phrase is that expressed in the transla- 
tion here given. 

A. xviii. 5. p. 48. The Lectio indubie genuina 
here, <rvvsi%sTo r<j> Aoya), by no means presents any 
obvious or satisfactory meaning. The translation here 
given of it would agree exceedingly well with the tenor 
of the narrative : that the words themselves clearly 
convey that idea, I am by no means prepared to 
assert. 

A. xx. 8. p. 73. The common reading, rjvav, they 
were, would interrupt the personal continuity of the 



NOTES. (A. xx. 13.— xxvi. 11.) 137 

narrator : which the genuine, rj^sv, we were, pre- 
serves. 

Acts xx. 13. p. 74. Ue&oeiv, to go by land, i. e. 
not by water. 

A. xxi. 4. p. 78* oLveupoureg robg [k.ahf\Ta.g is here 
given as rightly translated and explained by Professor 
Scholefield in his Hints for an Improved Translation, 
&c. 1836. I have in other places profited by the cor- 
rectness of his remarks, as at xxii. 23. ; xxvii. 40. in 
particular. 

At xxviii. U...£uf>6vreg o&sXfyobg. . .the absence of the 
article requires and justifies our Version there..." We 
found brethren/' i. e. without expecting it from any 
previous knowledge. 

A. xxii. 25. p. 85. The genuine text here is, 'Qg 
Ss wpoirsivav aurou ro7g l[xa(nv, which demands the 
change in the translation here given to it : the lictors 
or Serjeants (A. xvi. 38.), were they whose task it was 
to do so. 

A. xxvi. 11. p. 97* 'Hvayxa£ov jQXao-^asTv, " I did 
my utmost to make them blaspheme," is here so trans- 
lated to prevent what from our Version, " I compelled 
them to blaspheme," might erroneously be supposed ; 
namely, that Saul was successful in that object of his 
persecution. 

In the preceding verse, 10., where it is said, " many 
of the saints did I shut up in prison," xarsx^sKra is 
rightly so translated, of an act that certainly took effect : 
there lies the difference. 



138 NOTES. 

The Greek of St. Luke in particular is remarkable 
for its very exact use of the tenses. 

Thus in the gospel, v. 6., faepprjyvvro means only 
that the net seemed in danger of breaking, as fivQi- 
%s<rQou is rightly rendered, of the ships, v. 7«> tnat 
" they began to sink." Where St. John in a similar 
miracle, xxi. 11., has to relate — " yet was not the net 
broken" — he uses the tense proper for that purpose, 
oux sGr%i<rdri to Mxtvov : though humanly speaking, in 
this as in the other miraculous draught, the breaking of 
the net was what might else have been looked for. 

Then again, an error on the opposite side appears in 
our Version of Luke v. 2., where the text a7rs7rXuuotv tol 
SlxTvoi, clearly means, not " they were washing," which 
would answer to a7T£7rAuvoy, but " they had washed or 
cleansed their nets," preparatory to their being em- 
ployed again. And agreeably to this statement, we 
find at v. 4. that Simon was ready to launch out into 
the deep without any delay. 

In another text, L. xiii. 1., our Version renders it 
very exactly where the same occasional usage of the 
Aorist occurs, 

wv to al[Ma Yli7\oLTog £[xi^s [jlstol t&u ^ugi&v cwtcqv, 
" whose blood Pilate had" at some previous time 
" mingled with their sacrifices." 

The common use of the Aorist, in simply narrating 
past events, may be best seen by contrast, when that 
clearly exists, with another tense. Thus, in St. Luke, 
s7rops6Qrj (as in iv. 42.) he journeyed, and after that 
journeying something else happened in the train of 
events : 
whereas s7ropeusTo (as in vii. 11.) he was journeying, 



NOTES. (GAL.vi. 12. iii. 3.) 139 

and in the course of that journey something else took 
place. 

In the present tense, so called, it is very often im- 
portant to remark the idea of incipience/, of volition, 
of conatus, &c. as distinguished from that of event and 
actuality. 

Thus, Galat. vi. 12., avayxa^oixriv, which our Ver- 
sion rather ambiguously renders, " constrain you to be 
circumcised," only means, " would fain compel you, do 
all they can to compel/' &c. 

Thus again, in Luke xi. 19. of uloi b^Cov h t/w 
lx&aKho\)<n ; as it stands in our Version, " by whom do 
your sons cast them out?" conveys the meaning am- 
biguously at least : for it can never be taken for granted, 
that those persons actually did cast out demons. They 
attempted to do so : and that is all that is warranted in 
the word, IxSaXXouen. Accordingly, we see the drift 
of our Lord's question to be this : If your sons, those 
among you who pretend to the faculty of exorcism, 
proceed (as* we know they did) by solemn adjuration of 
the name of the Almighty ; am I, think you, so void of 
understanding, as to employ inferior at once and unna- 
tural means for producing that effect ? Let the whole 
passage be read, from v. 14. to v. 22. 

Another remark on distinctive usages ; and I have 
done. 

Where the notion suggested is one of inclination 
thought, desire, &c. yet more delicacy is required in 
the translation, while the necessity of rendering it pre- 
cisely becomes the more apparent on that account. 

Thus, Galat. iii. 3. Itt/tsAsTo-^. . .having begun in 
the spirit, do you think to be made perfect by the flesh ? 



140 NOTES. (Gal. iii. 3, 4.) 

ibid, v. 4. SixaiouG-Qe. Christ is become of no effect 
unto you, whosoever of you seek to be justified by the 
law. 

After all, however, as on the one hand the English 
language cannot without periphrasis express such pro- 
prieties of sense, so on the other it would be heavy and 
pedantic in all such cases to develope the signification. 
Only when something important is involved which else 
might escape notice, does precision like that here 
pointed out need to be exacted : the vis directrix of the 
context, generally, serves well enough to guard the 
mind from any aberration. 



ARTICLES OF APPENDIX 



THE ELUCIDATION OF SEVERAL MATTERS 



THE CONTINUOUS HISTORY. 



Appendix A. p. 23. 

The posteriority of the council of Jerusalem in Acts, 
ch. xv., to the journey related in the Epistle to the 
Galatians, ii. 1. 10., shown by the total discrepancy 
of the two narratives. 

On the strong suggestion given in H. P. 100, 101., 
and on the ground of those leading objections of incon- 
gruity there started, I have myself with great care 
pursued the argument in several of its principal views : 
and to my mind the entire difference is now irrefragably 
established between the transaction recorded by the 
apostle and the journey to Jerusalem, which produced 
the decree of the council held there. 

The two missions, then, must appear irreconcileable 
with each other, whether we consider the manner and 
circumstances of each, or the leading persons in either 
case concerned, or the objects in each directly proposed 
and incidentally arising. 



142 APPENDIX A. 

1. In the epistle, ii. f., St. Paul tells us, that he 
went up by revelation, and that he addressed himself 
privately, and with much caution, to them of the great- 
est authority, and to them only. 

In the Acts, xv. 2. 4. 6. 12. 22., we read, that he 
was sent by the church of Antioch, and received pub- 
lickly by the whole church at Jerusalem, that is, by the 
apostles and elders, and all the multitude. 

2. In the epistle, Barnabas and Titus are both men- 
tioned as the companions of Paul, ii. 1. : and those are 
his only companions. 

In the Acts, Paul, and Barnabas, and certain others 
(more than three), are sent on that mission, xv. 2. No 
Titus is mentioned. 

But what is yet more decisive, the apostles with 
whom Paul had his conference, were expressly James 
the Less, Cephas or Peter, and John, ii. 9. 

In the Acts, St. John most certainly does not ap- 
pear : an omission perfectly unaccountable, supposing 
him (in the early part of the Acts) the constant asso- 
ciate of Peter, to have been in Jerusalem at so critical 
a time. 

3. Nor again were the objects of the journey in the 
two cases less dissimilar. 

In the epistle, the direct object was to have Paul's 
apostleship to the Gentiles as a peculiar and separate 
commission duely recognised : and that end, as we read 
in vv. 7"«12' was accomplished. 

In the Acts, the question to be settled was this : 
whether it should be accounted essential to the profes- 
sion of Christianity, that Gentile converts must conform 
themselves to the law of Moses. A wise and temper- 
ate arrangement was the result, vv. 20. 29. 

4. In the epistle, the single question about the Gen- 
tile Titus, as the acknowledged companion of Paul, 



APPENDIX A. 143 

arose incidentally, and was rather overcome in itself for 
the time, than productive of any ultimate decision. 

In the Acts, it was the general question, clearly so, 
which came in form to be determined. And if we 
suppose the quarrel on the particular case of Titus to 
have then arisen, and by the firmness of St. Paul to 
have been then settled against the rite of circumcision 
being obligatory ; is it credible, that an affair so directly 
decisive of one principal point on which the council 
was held, could have been passed over in utter silence 
by the historian ? Surely not. 



These proofs of discrepancy, if taken alone, might 
establish the irreconcileable difference betwixt the one 
transaction and the other ; even if no narrative had ex- 
isted of the rebuke given by Paul to Peter, Gal. ii. 
11. ..14. in the affair of Antioch. 

But when that dispute betwixt the two apostles is 
taken into the account, which, on the supposition of the 
journies being identical, must have taken place after the 
council of Jerusalem ; then the hypothesis of such 
identity assumes an aspect of more glaring awkward- 
ness. For on the occasion at Antioch, not only did 
the question entirely turn upon the lawfulness of Jewish 
believers eating with Gentile Christians, the very point 
which Peter had been a principal party in deciding, 
viz. that such communion of the table might, on cer- 
tain easy conditions, without offence, be allowed. But 
what is hardly, perhaps, less remarkable, Barnabas also, 
one of the very persons delegated to carry the decree 
of the council to Antioch, would be represented (v. 13.) 
in that very city either as not understanding the decree 
or as absolutely in his conduct running counter to it. 
The rationality of making the rebuke precede the 



144 APPENDIX A. 

council, has been clearly seen by some eminent persons, 
as a Note at the close of this article will show ; and they 
might have drawn the just conclusion immediately aris- 
ing, that the private journey (here so called) must, in 
that case, as being prior to the rebuke, have been a 
separate concern from the public mission to Jerusalem, 
and of course antecedent to it. 



Finally, and to wind up the argument, when it is 
once clearly understood, that the journey related by 
Paul to the Galatians was prior, say by a year, as it 
easily might be, to the council of Jerusalem ; let us 
observe how beautifully then all things proceed in na- 
tural consecution and consistency, instead of appearing, 
as else they must do, retrogressive and embarrassed. 

When, on the first of those occasions, Paul and Bar- 
nabas visited the Holy City, to all appearance they had 
proceeded directly to their journey's end ; and most 
assuredly without, stopping by the way, to promulgate 
what it was their design not to disclose till their arrival, 
and then only to certain leading persons of the church 
at Jerusalem. 

During that journey, on the contrary, under different 
circumstances narrated in the Acts, they should seem 
to have passed through Phenice and Samaria, (xv. 3.) 
on purpose to declare the conversion of the Gentiles, 
and to share the great joy which their tidings caused to 
all the brethren : and when they were come to Jerusa- 
lem, they in like manner to the church there openly 
declared (vv. 4. 12.) all things which God had done by 
them as ministers of the gospel of His Son. 

But on their arrival in that city, we read that the 
same zealots and Judaising Christians who had pre- 
viously given so much trouble to the apostle, Gal. ii. 



APPENDIX A. 145 

3... 5., were ready as soon as ever he appeared, to raise 
the same angry controversy on a larger scale again. 

Providentially, however, by this time both Peter, in 
consequence partly of that just rebuke administered by 
Paul at Antioch, and St. James, who must have profited 
by his report of that striking remonstrance, had learned, 
on mature reflection, to entertain firmer sentiments \ 
and under divine guidance, by inspired authority now, 
gave a decisive ratification to articles of peace for the 
harmony of the church. 



Note on p. 144. — It is well known that St. Augustine 
disagreed, much to his honour, with St. Jerome on the sub- 
ject of the rebuke at Antioch. He maintained, that Paul 
was justified in plainly reproving Peter, if that rencontre 
took place after the council of Jerusalem, or even if it took 
place, as he was rather inclined to think (quod magis ar- 
bitror), before the time of the council. Epistola lxxxii. ad 
Hieronymum, capp. x. xi. Benedictine edition. 

Heinrych Bullinger, in his Series et Digestio Temporum et 
jRemm Descriptarum a JBeato Luca in Actis Apostolorum, 
Tiguri, m.d.xlviii.. assigns much too early a date to the 
rebuke, for he makes it precede the First of the Progresses, 
in these pages so styled; but then he disjoins it so much the 
farther from the council, by an interval of eight years, in the 
Tabula Seriei, &c. prefixed to the work. 

The learned Basnage, as quoted in Lardner's History of 
the Apostles, &c. ch. xviii. s. iii. on St. Peter, shall here be 
given at full length : on that one point of the priority of the 
dispute at Antioch to the council, nothing can be more 
strong and decisive. 

" Illud nobis verosimilius, Concilii Hierosolymitani cele- 
brationi antecessisse Petrinam banc in Syriae metropoli com- 
morationem. Argumento est disceptatio Pauli cum Petro, 
cujus dissimulationem obruisset autoritate Synodi, si jam 
coacta fuisset. Quin immo nulla Petro, et timendi Judaeos, 

L 



146 APPENDIX B. 

et eorum gratia sese separandi a Gentibus caussa fuit, si turn 
temporis promulgata fuisset Concilii Hierosolymitani Epistola: 
quo, veluti clypeo, ad omnes telorum Judaicorum ictus tutus 
erat. — Basnag. Ann. 46. num. xxv. 

Dr. Paley, in H. P. 106., timidly, but distinctly, says, 
— " There is nothing to hinder us from supposing that the 
dispute at Antioch was prior to the consultation at Jeru- 
salem." 



Before concluding this article, may I/be pardoned for 
saying, that to meet the difficulty started in H. P. 101... 
104. as to the decree not being noticed in the Epistle 
to the Galatians, a more direct solution, brief at once 
and satisfactory, may be found here in the Continuous 
History, pp. 29. 35. on Acts xv. 22. and xvi. 4. 



Appendix B. p. 48. 
On the early date of the Epistle to the Galatians. 



This address to the churches of Galatia is evidently 
marked with striking characters of earliness both in the 
style and temperament of the writing, and in the 
principal points of its subject also, the circumcision of 
the Gentile converts, and the apostolic authority of the 
writer himself. And I refer with much pleasure to the 
opening pages of H. P. 78... 80. for remarks highly 
valuable in the way of general introduction to its 
perusal, and as bearing on the high probability, at least, 
of a very early date. 



APPENDIX B. 147 

To my mind, I confess, Dr. Paley's reasonings were 
alone sufficient to produce that conviction, before I read 
Michaelis's very able and decisive argument to prove this 
epistle the first of those extant written by St. Paul. 
But then I see no advantage or much probability in 
that eminent scholar's conjecture, that it was written at 
Thessalonica ( A. -xvii. 1...10.) or even before he ar- 
rived in that city. Vide Marsh's Translation of Michaelis 
on the New Testament, vol. iv. pp. 8, 9, 10. 1801. 

A few observations, however, may not be without 
their effect in contributing to support the date from 
Corinth here assumed, pp. 47, 8., and against some ob- 
jections which have been speciously urged on the other 
side. 

1. The passage, iv. 13., has been appealed to : oI^olts 
$£, on §f aoSiveiau rr\g (rapxog zbf\yyzhi(Ta.[Krt]V u(jav 
to wporspov. " Ye know how, through infirmity of the 
flesh, 1 preached the gospel unto you at the first." It 
has been maintained, that the concluding phrase ought 
to be translated, the first time, and that it clearly indi- 
cates St. Paul to have already visited the churches of 
Galatia more than once when he so wrote. 

I answer, that the words to irpoizpov might consist 
well enough with the fact of more than once, if more 
than once could otherwise be found. But, then, no 
direct or indirect allusion whatever to any other visit 
antecedent to this epistle any where appears in it. 

Those words. . ."at the first". . .only refer to his preach- 
ing while personally among them, as distinguished from 
his visitation now repeated through the medium of this 
epistle. And in the following verses, 

18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a 
good thing, and not only when I am present with you. 

19. My little children, of whom I travail in birth 
again until Christ be formed in you. 

l 2 



148 APPENDIX B. 

20. I desire [I could like] to be present with you 
now, and to change my voice ; for I stand in doubt 
of you. 

Here we certainly read the apostle's strong wish that 
he might see them again, and in the word itself wahiv 
(taken with the context) no obscure indication that it 
would then be for the second time. • 

2. That objection to the epistle having so early a 
date taken from the address, i. 2., " unto the churches 
of Galatia," may be easily disposed of. 

We find only the church at Thessalonica, it is said, 
and the church only at Corinth. Some time, therefore, 
must have elapsed, before the Christians in Galatia 
could have formed themselves into separate churches. 

I answer thus : Galatia was the name of a region 
having no single place of importance ever mentioned in 
the visitations of the apostle. As far therefore as his 
progress amongst them is concerned, we may rather 
conclude that the disciples did not live in any large city. 
The country may have been inhabited, vicatim, in 
small communities : a supposition which agrees well 
enough with the origin of the Galatic nation, as traced 
by St. Jerome, from their language, that of the Treviri 
(Michaelis, u. s. pp. 14, 15.) and which will also agree 
well with the several churches addressed in the opening 
of the epistle. 

3. The following remark, as bearing on the early 
date, may have some weight, and deserve some at- 
tention. 

According to our calculation, a short period only of 
time had intervened betwixt St. Paul's cruel treatment 
at Philippi, A. xvi. 23... 33., and his arrival at Corinth, 
xviii. 1...4., the place from whence we think it most 
probable this epistle was written. In that singular ex- 
pression then, Gal. vi. 17., " I bear in my body the 



APPENDIX B. 149 

marks of the Lord Jesus," may we not trace something 
very like the recency of stripes, (rrly^oira, even yet in 
their scars visible ? 

And if the singularity of the phrase required explan- 
ation when that epistle was received by the Galatians, 
the messenger from St. Paul, who conveyed it, was at 
hand to interpret the meaning in all the particulars of 
the shameful infliction there alluded to. On some 
occasions, the messenger sent was expressly directed to 
give all requisite information beyond what was conveyed 
in the epistle : thus, to the Colossians, iv. 7«> " *dll 
my state shall Tychicus declare unto you." At other 
times, as at v. 10., the parties addressed are reminded 
of some message previously transmitted by similar 
communication : thus, " Marcus, sister's son to Barna- 
bas, touching whom ye received commandments : if he 
come unto you, receive him." But the messages so 
sent (and to these add Coloss. i. 70 appear to have 
borne the character, be it remarked, of personal in- 
struction or intelligence, not to have been charged with 
the delivery of any thing authoritative in a doctrinal 
way. 

4. I am duely aware that the text, 1 Cor. xvi. 1, c 2. 
(see p. 57. of this work) in connection with that of 
Galat. ii. 10. (there also) has been pressed into the 
service, for giving a later date to this epistle, as if it 
just preceded the Epistle to the Corinthians. 

The identity of that first general recommendation of 
a charity, in one of those texts, with the particular and 
exact direction for carrying it into effect, recorded in 
the other, has been assumed on very slight grounds of 
loose similitude. It cannot now be maintained, in the 
face, as I think these pages (already quoted) show, of 
that real occasion, on which such a direction would be 
naturally delivered by the apostle ; that is, on his 

l 3 



150 APPENDIX C. 

second visitation of Galatia, under a change of circum- 
stances more auspicious to such a purpose, and in part 
produced by the epistle itself, and when a contribution 
for the relief of the poor brethren at Jerusalem on a 
large scale was actually going forward. 



Appendix C. p. 50. 
On Acts xviii. 9, 10. Vide p. 37. also. 

The vision, and the thorn in the flesh as connected 
with that subject. 



The thorn in the flesh, that vexata qucestio, belongs 
in the first instance to the epistle, 2 Cor., as being 
there, xii. 7«> most distinctly mentioned ; while it is 
supposed, with good reason apparently, to have been the 
same with that infirmity of the flesh, and temptation, 
i. e. severe trial, in the flesh, at an earlier day recalled 
to the mind of the Galatians, Gal. iv. 18, 14., as 
having fallen under their notice. 

Now the beatific vision enjoyed by St. Paul, to which 
he refers, 2 Cor. xii. 1...4., must have long preceded 
his first visit to Galatia : and therefore the thorn, if as 
a humiliation and chastisement, it came soon after that 
remarkable event, must also have preceded the visit into 
that region, and must have continued at least till that 
period, when they witnessed him actually suffering 
under it. 



APPENDIX C. 151 

But in respect of the Corinthians, the case seems to 
be very different. Had they witnessed such a visible 
infirmity when he appeared in Corinth for the first 
time, A. xviii. 1., there could hardly be any need to tell 
them of it so very particularly now. Probably, there- 
fore, even before he passed over into Europe, A.xvi. 11., 
his prayers for deliverance from the affliction had at 
length been heard. Not a vestige of its existence can 
be traced lower down than in that notice taken of it to 
the Galatians. 

For be it here carefully remarked, that his being in 
presence base, or humble in look, among them, and the 
weakness of his bodily presence, 2 Cor. x. 1. and 10., 
appear from the context to have formed the general 
character of the apostle, as opposed to the attributes of 
bold, weighty, powerful; whereas the thorn in the 
flesh, whatever else that buffeting of Satan was, must 
have been something in its very nature peculiar and for 
a season, perhaps only an affection under which he was 
made occasionally to labour. 

But for a more decisive argument that St. Paul did 
not labour under it while at Corinth on his first visit 
there, the following consideration may be admitted, as 
coming at once to the point. When having at an early 
stage met with opposition and blasphemy in that city, 
A. xviii. 6., (and 1 Cor. ii. 3.) he stood in great need 
of supernatural support ; do we find him, vv. 9, 10., 
relieved by exemption from any specific weakness ? A 
general infusion of divine fortitude into his whole frame 
is there vouchsafed to the renovated apostle. 



L 4 



152 APPENDIX D. S. 1. 



Appendix D. pp. 62, 63. 
On Acts xix. 22. xx. 1, 2, &c. 

The developement promised, E P. 40, 1., of the 
transactions, fyc. connected with the two Epistles 
to the Corinthians. 

ss. 1, 2. As far as Timothy is concerned ; and in s. 1. 

of Apollos. 
s. 3. Of Titus, more particularly. 
s. 4. Of that benevolent contribution of the Gentile 

Christians. 
s. 5. On the apostle's retrospect of his labours and 

sufferings, 
s. 6. Original argument against the early date of the 

Epistle, 1 Timothy. 



This epistle, 1 Cor., was written by St. Paul from 
Ephesus, H. P. 36. : and the principal circumstances 
connected with its history and with that of 2 Cor., such 
as are necessary to make the narrative more clearly 
understood, may be stated thus, with as much brevity 
as those circumstances, themselves somewhat complex, 
will permit. 

s. 1. After St. Paul's first visit to Corinth, p. 47-, 
and his residence there for a year and a half, the his- 
tory brings him, and after no very long interval, the 



APPENDIX D. S. 1. 153 

second time to Ephesus, A. xix. 1. : and as he then 
continued in that city for the space of three years, 
A. xx. 31. or thereabouts, opportunities of intercourse 
with the church of Corinth must have frequently oc- 
curred. Accordingly we find that some of the Corin- 
thian converts, distressed by matters of scandal which 
had arisen after St. Paul's sojourn among them, agreed 
to appeal to the apostle at Ephesus, and for that pur- 
pose to consult him by a letter, conveyed apparently, 
1 Cor. xvi. 17., through the hands of Stephanas, For- 
tunatus, and Achaicus. 

To this public letter St. Paul writes in 1 Cor. an 
explicit answer : but having received private intelli- 
gence, H. P. 34, 5., of other abuses and disorders, he 
delivers his judgment, i. 11., v. 1., xi. 18., very fully on 
those matters also. And the epistle in which all this 
and much more is accomplished, he seems to have sent 
to Corinth by the persons commissioned to him in the 
first instance. 

About the same time that the letter from Corinth 
was received by the apostle, we may suppose that 
Apollos (of whom our earliest account is very dis- 
tinct, A. xviii. 24... 28.), " displeased with the faction" 
in Corinth, " which had spread under his name," went 
over to Ephesus for the satisfaction of conferring in 
person with St. Paul ; to whom he then for the first 
time became personally known. And the depth of that 
feeling under which he sought the conference, may be 
estimated by his disinclination, his refusal indeed, to go 
back to Corinth along with the messengers, though, 
" greatly desired," 1 C. xvi. 12., so to do by the apostle 
himself. No schism in the peace and unity of the 
church of Christ should be laid to his charge. 

After this period, no further mention (and never as 
at Corinth again) occurs of Apollos, till, in the Epistle 



154 APPENDIX D. S. 2. 

to Titus iii. 13., we find his name as a Christian mi- 
nister under the direction of St. Paul ; with the request 
to Titus, that he should be forwarded from Crete, on 
some journey, to Jerusalem not improbably, in company 
with Zenas the lawyer. 

s. 2. Before St. Paul wrote this epistle, 1 Cor., he 
had dispatched Timothy from Ephesus, A. xix. 22., 
together with Erastus who belonged to Corinth, on a 
journey (probably by Troas) into Macedonia, to prepare 
the way for his visiting the churches of that country. 

Erom Macedonia, Timothy had instructions, 1 C. iv. 
17. j xvi. 10., to proceed onwards to Corinth ; where, 
however, it was clearly not expected by St. Paul, that he 
could arrive till some time after the epistle, 1 Cor., had 
been received. 

Now on the fair probabilities before the mind of 
St. Paul in the actual situation of things when he wrote 
that epistle, he had formed a calculation which would 
allow Timothy, after passing through Macedonia, both 
to visit the church of Corinth on his way back, and 
from thence even to be forwarded to Ephesus, in time 
it might be to reach Paul with tidings from Corinth, 
before the day of Pentecost, 1 C. xvi. 8., the limit then 
marked for his stay in that city. 

Every thing, however, seems to have turned out in 
the event far otherwise than the apostle, with apparent 
reason at the time, had calculated. The riot in the 
theatre at Ephesus, A. xix. 23., after 1 Cor. was writ- 
ten, beyond a doubt occasioned, A. xx. 1., his premature 
departure for Macedonia. And when on his route thither 
he had reached Troas, sooner of course than he origi- 
nally intended, not finding Titus there, 2 C. ii. 12, 13., 
with tidings from the church of Corinth, " I had no 
rest in my spirit," he tells us \ and his impatience was 



APPENDIX D. S. 3. 155 

so great, that he hurried away at once into Macedonia 
as hoping there to meet Titus. 

At Philippi (no other place so probable) Titus hap- 
pily, 2 C. vii. 6., came to him : and in that city, we may 
reasonably suppose, that Paul, having with successful ex- 
pedition arrived there, overtook Timothy also, on that 
favourite spot of their common ministry, before the 
errand on which he was there engaged had allowed 
him to set out for Corinth. 

(Such is the fuller account promised, H. P. 40, 1. 

s. 3. Thus far principally in respect of Timothy. 
The share which Titus had in this series of transac- 
tions next requires, with somewhat more particularity, 
to be laid before the reader. 

Paul's original intention had once been, as he inti- 
mates, 2 C. i. 15, 16., to visit Corinth in his way (the 
second time) to Macedonia, and even to take Corinth in 
his way back again toward Judea. But from the dis- 
orderly state of the Corinthian converts at that period, 
and the necessity, if he had then visited the church, of 
exercising some painful severities, H. P. 64., he changed 
his purpose, but without assigning the motive to them 
at the time ; and chose rather to try what good effect 
" a letter of authoritative objurgation " might first have 
upon them. 

To ascertain the result of that experiment, it should 
appear, that soon after the letter, 1 Cor., from Ephesus 
was dispatched, he sent Titus to Corinth direct (the 
mission afterwards alluded to, 2 C. xii. 17, 18.) with 
instructions, after his errand of visitation there was ac- 
complished, to pass through Macedonia and meet him 
at Troas. 

When Paul on his way to Macedonia, A. xx. 1., as 
we have seen, arrived at Troas, much sooner than he 



156 APPENDIX D. S. 3. 

had originally designed, in consequence of that uproar 
at Ephesus ; though a door was opened to him there, 
2 C. ii. 12, 13., to preach the gospel of Christ, yet his 
anxiety to see Titus, who did not arrive according to 
his wishes, was such, that he departed somewhat hastily 
from Troas, in the hope to meet Titus in Macedonia. 
And there, to his great joy, at Philippi, most probably, 
Titus actually came to him. 

When from his confidential minister Paul had now 
learned, that the epistle, 1 C, to the Corinthians, had 
proved fully effective to the salutary end proposed by 
it, and had received satisfactory intelligence of their 
fervent mind towards him, 2 C. vii. 7«"9., their sorrow, 
and their penitence, then, but not before, in his second 
epistle (written soon after from Philippi, H. P. 166., 
and sent by Titus as a welcome messenger, 2 C. viii. 6. 
16, 17.) he discloses the very deep and kind consider- 
ation, upon which he had delayed to visit Corinth the 
second time as he had originally promised : and he thus 
clears himself from the appearance of vacillation and in- 
decisiveness and even timidity under which he had been 
content for a while to labour, and to be so much misre- 
presented, 1 C. iv. 18, 19. 

It is important here to remark, that Titus when first 
sent by Paul from Ephesus to Corinth, had acted there, 
2 C. xii. 17, 18., with the same generous and disinte- 
rested feeling as the apostle himself had done before : 
and the readiness which he showed to go from Philippi, 
on a second mission as the delegate of Paul to the 
Corinthians, 2 C. viii. 6., justifies the idea, that a truely 
Christian spirit of affection had filled the hearts alike of 
him and of them. 

And seeing it is quite clear, that Titus did not bear 
Paul company when he at a later period set off from 
Corinth, A. xx. 3, 4., we must naturally conclude, that 



APPENDIX D. S. 4. 157 

in that city he continued as the resident head of the 
church for several years. No opportunity arises in the 
course of the Acts afterwards, in which Titus could be 
supposed to bear a part : and we take our leave of him 
here, till another occasion introduce him on a new scene 
of high interest, as the companion of Paul from Rome 
to Crete, and as invested by Paul with episcopal autho- 
rity over the churches in that island. 

s. 4. That benevolent contribution of the Gentiles, 

which St. Paul ultimately carried up, for the relief of 
the poorer Christians at Jerusalem, would not only 
answer its own immediate object ; but, inasmuch as it 
showed the blessed influence of the gospel spirit in the 
new converts, must have been eminently efficacious also 
in abating Jewish prejudices, and in conciliating Jewish 
hearts towards their Gentile brethren. 

The progress of this contribution itself of Christian 
liberality may be traced with much interest by the aid 
of the Horas Paulinae, pp. 12, 13. 19. 54., in 1. C. xvi. 
1...4. 2 C. viii. 1...4., ix. 1, 2. Rom. xv. 25, 6. 
A. xxiv. 17. 

The persons sent down from Philippi to Corinth on 
that business of charity, 2 C. viii. 16... 24., were three ; 
of whom Titus was the principal. Who were the other 
two ? Perhaps to be found among the seven afterwards 
companions of Paul, enumerated in A. xx. 4. It is 
an easier task to point out who they were not. 

Luke is fairly considered to have staid behind at 
Philippi, when Paul went over those parts, A. xx. 2. 
His "praise in the gospel," as the writer of that gospel 
so named, was yet to come : and those words, 2 C. viii. 
18., more likely designate some such character as that 
of Gaius of Derbe. Tide Rom. xvi. 23. and his name 
in the Index. 



158 APPENDIX D. S. 5. 

Barnabas, whom Chrysostom, and after him Calvin, 
assume as likely to have been one of the parties, had 
been now for some time in a state of separation from 
Paul, ever since they parted, A. xv. 39. 

And as to Silas, who has also been conjectured, it 
is highly probable, vide Index in his name, that he had 
very naturally remained in Jerusalem, A. xviii. 22., at 
the close of the apostle's second great progress. No 
other account can be given of him as connected with 
this period of apostolic history. 

s. 5. The apostle's retrospect and survey of his 
labours and sufferings. 

2 Cor. vi. 4... 10. 

4. In all things approving ourselves as the ministers 
of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, 
in distresses, 

5. In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, 
in watchings, in fastings ; 

6. By pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by 
kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 

7. By the word of truth, by the power of God, by 
the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on 

the left, 

8. By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good 
report : as deceivers, and yet true ; 

9. As unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, 
behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; 

10. As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet 
making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possess- 
ing all things. 

2 Cor. xi. 21... 28. 

21. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we 



APPENDIX D. S. 5. 159 

had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I 
speak foolishly,) I am bold also. 

22. Are they Hebrews ? So am I. Are they Is- 
raelites ? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham ? 
So am I. 

23. Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a 
fool) I am more ; in labours more abundant, in stripes 
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 

24. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes 
save one. 

25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, 
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have 
been in the deep ; 

26. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils 
of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils 
by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the 
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
brethren ; 

27. In weariness and painfulness, in watch ings often, 
in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness. 

28. Beside those things that are without, that which 
cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 



The splendid enumeration of particulars, unpa- 
ralleled as from their nature they must ever be, in both 
these passages, must be ranked as the very highest ex- 
amples of the sublime and the pathetic. And since the 
apostle wrote thus to the Corinthians from Philippi, just 
on the eve of carrying the gospel for the first time into 
the north-west side of Greece, in thus recording the 
summary of his past career, he may seem to have 
marked, intentionally so, a memorable era in the whole 
of his apostolical life. 



160 APPENDIX D. S. 6. 

From the brevity with which Luke has narrated some 
parts of St. Paul's history, and from the silence in 
which unquestionably other parts are passed over, 
though many of the particular events here recounted 
in the epistle can be extracted from the Acts, all of 
them certainly cannot. But then the perfect consist- 
ency of the articles inserted in the one with every 
thing found in the correspondent parts of the other, 
has been admirably pointed out by Dr. Paley, H. P. 
68, 69... with ingenious indication also to show where, 
in vacant spaces of the narrative, various accidents and 
disasters may well be supposed to have happened, or 
rather in the troubled course of such affairs could 
hardly fail to take place. 



For similar elucidation of the same topic, the reader 
may be referred to some valuable remarks in Mr. Gres- 
well's Dissertations upon the Harmony of the Gospels, 
1837. vol. ii. p. 63. in the Note. 



s. 6. Original argument against the early date of the 
epistle 1 Timothy. 

We have already stated, (at the beginning of s. 2.) 
that according to St. Paul's calculation in the first in- 
stance, Timothy, after visiting the Macedonian churches, 
might have visited the church of Corinth, and that, 
too, even in time, perhaps, to arrive at Ephesus before 
Paul's departure, as originally designed, from that city. 
In writing to the Corinthians accordingly, 1 C. iv. 17., 
he speaks of having sent Timotheus unto them ; though 
he afterwards expresses himself, xvi. 10., more in the 
language of doubt and contingency, 'Eav §\ shSy 
TifxoQsog, "Now in case of Timothy's coming," &c. 



APPENDIX D. S. 6. 161 

Here then a word of remark may find its place, in 
decisive reply to those commentators, who maintain, 
H. P. 166., that the First Epistle to Timothy was 
written to him, and when left behind, 1 T. i. 3., at 
Ephesus, about this very time. Of course, to maintain 
that hypothesis, it must be assumed, that Timothy from 
Corinth had actually reached Ephesus, before Paul left 
that city, although his departure was abrupt and evi- 
dently premature. 

Be it so then, that Timothy, on returning from his 
journey to the north, had travelled very quickly to 
Corinth, and after fulfilling there the apostle's commis- 
sion, 1 C. iv. 17., to " bring them into remembrance of 
my ways which be in Christ," had been so well " con- 
ducted forth," xvi. 11., as to reach Ephesus before Paul 
left that place. What is the consequence that imme- 
diately results from such concession ? Why, that St. 
Paul must at that rate have received from Timothy (in 
ever so short an interview) the very latest information 
of the now happy state of things in the church of Co- 
rinth ; and being released therefore from all immediate 
solicitude about the spiritual state of the Corinthian 
brethren, he could not possibly have felt any anxiety or 
impatience whatsoever to hear the report of what must 
have been of an earlier date, from the mouth of Titus, 
concerning them. 

The supposed arrival, therefore, of Timothy at 
Ephesus before Paul departed from thence, thus stands 
utterly irreeoncileabie with the recorded fact, that Paul, 
when he reached Troas, was labouring under affection ite 
disquietude as to meeting Titus there : which painful 
feeling was unabated, till Titus after all came to him at 
Philippi, and poured into his heart the consolatory in- 
telligence that all at Corinth was well. 

While therefore those other considerations which Dr. 

M 



162 APPENDIX E. S. 1. 

Paley, H. P. 166, 7., has so clearly and acutely ad- 
vanced, may be allowed, I think, as of themselves quite 
strong enough to set that erroneous date of 1 Tim. 
aside ; it cannot be deemed a work of supererogation, 
if by a line of argument quite distinct and apparently 
original (as this seems to me) the total improbability of 
that hypothesis be once for all thus demonstrated. 



Appendix E. p. 100. 
On Acts xxvii. 1. 

Luke, his Gospel, and the Acts of the Apostles. 

s. 1. Where was Luke, when he wrote the gospel ? 
s. 2. The gospel of Luke posterior to those of Mat- 
thew and Mark. 
s. 3. Where was Luke when he wrote the Acts ? 



s. 1. Of all the eight opinions which have assigned 
a locality for Luke when he wrote his gospel, (Marsh's 
Michaelis, voh iii. part i. p. 248.) Antioch, Troas, 
Alexandria, Egyptian Thebes, in Achaia, Bithynia, 
Macedonia, &c, there is not one in any probability at 
all comparable to that opinion, which would assign 
Palestine as the place for that purpose, and for the time 
to write it part of those two years, during which he 
appears to have been at Cesarea, generally in company 



APPENDIX E/ S. 1. 163 

with St. Paul, even if he was occasionally sent on mis- 
sions elsewhere. We have definite fact for that time 
and that place, which for no other time and place is 
even pretended. And as to opportunity for the com- 
position of the sacred narrative, could any scene be 
imagined more happy and appropriate than Cesarea ? 
Jerusalem was only seventy miles distant : and the 
intercourse betwixt the seat of Roman government and 
the Holy City must have been as expeditious as it was 
frequent. 

Then, too, in what other situation could Luke enjoy 
such ready access to those who "from the beginning" 
(L. i. 2.) had been "eye-witnesses and ministers of the 
word ?" To James the Less in particular (as well as 
to others) we are certain that Luke had become per- 
sonally known ; when, on their arrival in Jerusalem, 
A. xxi. 18., " Paul went in with us unto James, and all 
the elders were present." An acquaintance, thus begun 
with that eminent minister of our Lord, he would cer- 
tainly cultivate by opportunities afterwards. 

But it may naturally be asked, Allowing the Gospel 
to have been written at Cesarea in the time of St. Paul's 
imprisonment there, who was Theophilus, to whom the 
Gospel is dedicated ? Here again we enjoy the decisive 
advantage of referring to a real person, the only one 
known to us by that name at that period ; a person be- 
longing to Judea, as having been high priest, who from 
the time about which he held that office, and from the 
early age at which it could then be held, was likely enough 
to be alive at the very date required, and who, as having 
held the high priesthood, was entitled to the address of 
rank, xparia-Ts, " most excellent." 

We are indebted to the acute perspicacity of Theo- 
dore Hase (Michaelis, u. s. pp. 238... 240.) for this 
most ingenious and highly probable supposition, in all 

M 2 



164 APPENDIX E. S. 1. 

its principal points. And I am disposed to go farther 
than Michaelis as to the satisfaction with which we may- 
contemplate it. He, after examining all the other 
notions which have been advanced upon the subject, 
declares (p. 266.) of this, that though not confirmed 
by (direct) historical evidence, it is supported by its own 
internal probability, and is on the whole more eligible 
than any of the merely traditionary reports. 

For my part, I see no difficulty whatever in Theodore 
Hase's hypothesis, except it be from a point of chrono- 
logy which shall be noticed at the close of this section. 
And I am strongly inclined to recommend its adoption 
to the readers of these pages, not only as harmonising 
well with all the phenomena of the case, but as favoured 
by positive considerations already stated, and therefore 
as greatly superior to the other hypotheses which have 
nothing but obscure tradition to rest upon. 

As to a high priest's having become a Christian con- 
vert, what should hinder it ? At an early period, and 
in Jerusalem, we read, A. vi. 7'-, that " a great company 
of the priests were obedient to the faith." In Corinth, 
several years after, we find one ruler of the synagogue 
at least, Crispus, A. xviii. 8., to have been so converted. 
And why should we doubt but that some even of the 
highest dignity might be converted in Jerusalem ? 



Note above referred to. 
Mr. Greswell, it is true, in his own calculations, or in 
those adopted by him, having made the high priesthood of 
Theophilus extend from A. D. 37 to 41, and having fixed 
the conversion of St. Paul in 37, sees an insuperable ob- 
jection to that Theophilus having been the Theophilus of 
St. Luke; since, according to Mr. Greswell's tables, it was 
he that must have given to Saul the letters of prosecution, 
A. ix. 1., against the believers at Damascus. 



APPENDIX E. S. c 2, 165 

But inasmuch as in these matters exactness now is of very 
questionable attainment, and since the late learned Dr. Bur- 
ton, in his Lectures upon the First Three Centuries^ v. i. p. 88., 
did not hesitate to fix the conversion of Saul in the early year of 
A. D. 31 (fixed by Bp. Lloyd of Worcester in A. D. 35), 
why may not advantage be fairly taken of so great a difference 
in the estimate of dates and facts ? at least so far as to allow 
a somewhat earlier year to be assumed for that miraculous 
event. And any year before A. D. 37 being assigned to the 
conversion, removes the personal difficulty, if after all there 
be any real weight in it, which lies against the high priest 
Theophilus being the Theophilus of the evangelist. 

And be it remembered, that after all, this defence proceeds 
on the idea of A. D. 37. as the first year of Theophilus's high 
priesthood being demonstratively settled: whereas a small 
deviation from the precise reckoning there also adopted by 
Mr. Greswell, would serve to solve for us that point of chro- 
nology. 



s. 2. On the posteriority of Luke's gospel to those of 
Matthew and Mark. 

Without pretending to enter into any consideration 
of time and date, except so far generally as the order 
and succession of events is concerned, I cannot but de- 
clare myself entirely satisfied with the demonstration so 
fully given by Mr. Greswell, vol. i. pp. 17... that Luke's 
Gospel must have been intended as supplemental to those 
of Matthew and Mark. The reader's attention is for 
the present particularly directed to the two following in- 
stances ; which are selected as almost of themselves de- 
cisive to the mind on that very important question. 

1. Matthew xxvi. 51. and Mark xiv. 47. relate 
that one of the followers of Jesus smote a servant of 
the high priest's and cut off his ear. Luke (xxii. 50, 51.) 

m 3 



166 APPENDIX E. S. 3. 

has added, that it was the right ear, and that Jesus 
healed him. 

(St. John, the last of the four, xviii. 10., farther re- 
cords, that it was Simon Peter who drew the sword, 
and that the servant's name was Malchus.) 

2. Matthew (xxvii. 44.) relates that the malefactors 
who were crucified with our Lord reviled him ; which is 
virtually repeated by Mark xv. 32. 

Whereas Luke (xxiii. 89... 43.) not only records that 
one of the malefactors rebuked the other for what he 
did, but has preserved the dialogue betwixt our Lord 
and that penitent on the cross. 



s. 3. Where was Luke when he wrote the Acts of 
the Apostles ? 

If the sacred historian, as we have just seen, was 
enabled to make his Gospel supplemental to the two 
others, by opportunities which his residence in Pales- 
tine afforded ; surely also, if in writing the Acts he 
could have been resident there, he must have enjoyed 
advantages which no other locality could in the same 
degree supply. 

Now, when St. Paul wrote to the Colossians (iv. 14.) 
and to Philemon (24.), it is certain that Luke was in 
his company. Not many months perhaps afterwards, 
from his name not appearing in the Epistle to the Phi- 
lippians, he had, on some errand, doubtless one of im- 
portance, quitted Rome, and left St. Paul behind him. 
Again in St. Paul's second imprisonment we find Luke 
once more, 2 Tim. iv. 11., along with the apostle. 

Here then comes the question ; which involves a 
desideratum equally interesting to all students in this 



APPENDIX E. S. O. 167 

department of theology. Where had Luke been in 
the interval betwixt the one attendance on St. Paul 
and the other ? 

Not at Philippi : that is next to certain. Not in 
Crete, or in Ephesus, as the absence of his name from 
those epistles, 1 Tim. and Titus, may serve alone to 
testify. At Troas he might possibly have been, or 
even at Antioch : but it is a possibility without the 
vestige of a fact to render it at all probable. As to 
Corinth, apparently he had never been there ; and he 
was very little likely to visit that city now. 

From what is known regarding his antecedent loca- 
lity at Cesarea or in Palestine generally, it cannot be 
thought unlikely that he should visit that country 
again, acquainted as he must have been with many be- 
lievers and Christian brethren wherever he, " the be- 
loved physician," had gone. Even that consideration 
would favour the Holy Land in preference to any 
other region which our conjecture is at liberty to em- 
brace. There too, when writing the Acts, he must 
have been quite out of the way of St. Paul. The very 
words at the conclusion of that book, — 

A. xxviii. 30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own 
hired house, — 

Not only show, that the historian and the apostle were 
at that time absent from each other ; but rather indicate 
also, that they were then in a state of distant separation, 
without any direct correspondence or intercourse. 

Now the apostolic occupation of St. Paul, on his 
fourth progress, within the iEgean sea, or in those 
parts north-west of Greece at this very period, would 
harmonise exactly with the position of Luke at Cesarea 
or Jerusalem, to establish that relative state of things. 
That is, Luke if so situated, could know nothing more 
of St. Paul, than his deliverance from the imprison- 

m 4 



168 APPENDIX E. S. 8. 

ment : intelligence certain to reach him wherever he 
then was, as from Rome it would travel far and fast 
among the brethren every where that believed. 

But this is not all. On our calculation of St. Paul's 
labours and progresses, by whom accompanied, and where 
employed, &c. it is very clear, that, consistently with 
other facts, the only time which can be allowed for 
Luke's writing the Acts and for giving publication to the 
work, must be fixed after the apostle's first and before 
his second imprisonment at Rome. Not only so : but 
wherever in that interval of time we are inclined to find 
a locality for Luke, we must find for him a situation 
also favourable to his acquiring more historical and 
local knowledge as to those transactions in the early 
part of the Acts, than he could have derived either 
from conversation with St. Paul or from having wit- 
nessed what was said and done only by that apostle. 

With a view then to answer all the phenomena of the 
case, in the peculiarity of the time, in the appropri- 
ateness of situation, and let me add, in the neighbour- 
hood also to Theophilus, what other supposition has 
been offered, bearing any pretension to the character of 
a just hypothesis? 

Having looked all around for such a locality, I can- 
not discover any one else in the least degree probable : 
I can hardly indeed imagine any other, except that 
which the reader has already anticipated. In a word, 
for the reasons here suggested, Luke must have natu- 
rally sought the situation of Cesarea, so as to write the 
Acts of the Apostles, under the same advantageous cir- 
cumstances, in which a few years before he had written 
the Gospel. And there also meeting with Theophilus, 
it may be having even expected to meet with him, in 
the same place, to Theophilus he properly addressed 
also the Acts of the Apostles. 



APPENDIX E. S. 3. 169 

From his dedicating, however, those works to Theo- 
philus, we are by no means to conclude, that Luke 
originally drew up either the Gospel or the Acts with 
any partial view to the benefit of an individual, how- 
ever eminent he might be. No doubt, those works were 
so far connected with his personal instruction, that 
before all others he might first enjoy the perusal, per- 
haps confidentially know of the composition, while in 
each case it was going on. Beyond this, all appropria- 
tion of either history to the enlightening of the mind 
of one person (whether Jew or Greek) is as improbable, 
a priori, as it is void of support from any intimation 
which internal evidence can bestow. 

The entire history of Christianity, from the birth of 
Christ to a remarkable era in the labours of his most 
illustrious apostle, w r as a work divinely vouchsafed and 
secured as a blessing for all countries of the world. 
And naturally, therefore, at that day Luke, writing as 
a Greek for Greek readers generally, has given the 
least information where in general it was least required, 
in respect of Asia, Greece, Italy, and the most where 
it would most be wanted, in respect of Galilee, for in- 
stance, and Judea. 

The prefixing, therefore, of such a name, whether to 
the Gospel or to the Acts, must be considered in a far 
more serious aspect than that of a personal compliment. 
Such an inscription, if we are right in conjecturing that 
Theophilus in Judea, after once being high priest, had 
professed himself a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, 
would give to God's holy gospel especially, to that 
light for lightening the Gentiles, the highest advantage 
of immediate authority with his people Israel, which 
any dedication to man could possibly confer. And we 
may well believe the name of Theophilus to have been 



170 APPENDIX E. S. 3. 

so prefixed by the direction of the Holy Spirit for the 
accomplishment of that very end. 

Finally, then, after the fullest consideration carefully 
bestowed on the subject, I feel no hesitation in declar- 
ing myself inclined to propose, not indeed as now capa- 
ble of demonstration, but as possessing the only claim 
to rational preference on intelligible grounds, the dis- 
tinct answer here given to the question : Where was 
Luke when he wrote the Gospel ? and to the second 
question equally interesting, Where was he when he 
wrote the book of Acts ? 

Let me, of course, be understood not only willingly, 
but with much gratitude and delight, to acknowledge 
my deep sense of obligation to Theodore Hase. To 
him, in the report of Michaelis, u. s., I am entirely in- 
debted for the first suggestion respecting the Gospel : 
from that bright and happy conjecture, I have borrowed 
the light which is here transferred, to discover the 
locality of composition for the Acts also. At the 
same time, let me candidly avow, that this second hypo- 
thesis, whether it be altogether mine or it has been 
forestalled, does more than merely harmonise with the 
first, which gave birth to it : it appears to me to lend 
to its parent in return no small confirmation besides, 
from the strength of its own separate rationality. 



APPENDIX F. 171 



Appendix F. p. 68. 
On Rom. xv. 24. 28. 

Did Paul ever visit Spain ? 
That question truely stated. 



The plain point at issue, if taken on its early grounds 
and independently of any later traditions, seems to 
stand thus : — 

Paul, in writing from Corinth to the Romans, xv. 
24. 28., expresses his design or hope to visit Rome, on 
his way then projected to visit Spain : this declaration 
he makes, when on the eve of setting off for Jerusalem. 

But when he arrives at Jerusalem, Acts xxi. 17-, 
which city he reaches (xx. 16.) in time for the feast 
of Pentecost, he is there violently apprehended, and 
there detained two years a prisoner at Cesarea, under 
Jewish persecution. 

After a long and dangerous voyage, and when three 
years or more had elapsed from his leaving Corinth, he 
reaches Rome as a prisoner, and is there detained two 
years more. 

On his deliverance, then, at the close of that time, 
and after that length of various imprisonments, it is 
gravely proposed as a matter for us to believe, and as 
an event altogether necessary to take place, that Paul 
should immediately set about to realise an intention 
five years before announced, not, be it remarked, to any 



172 APPENDIX F. 

Jews settled on the eastern coast of Spain, who then 
might have some reason, perhaps, to expect his coming, 
and would otherwise be disappointed : not so, but to 
accomplish a contingent purpose, intimated to the 
brethren generally at Rome, and that, after the lapse 
of several years, under a total change, too, of all the cir- 
cumstances, under which it was contemplated. 

Had St. Paul, indeed, after visiting Jerusalem at the 
feast of Pentecost, and delivering the charitable con- 
tributions there, been left quite at liberty to pursue his 
own preconcerted plans, especially after his declaration 
at Ephesus, which, as preceding the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, shows the early date of that his solemn purpose, 

A. xix. 21. After I have been at Jerusalem, I must 
also see Rome : 

On this supposition, we can hardly doubt, but that 
he might have let even Antioch for once go unvisited 
at the close of that his third progress, and have sailed 
away to Rome by the very earliest opportunity. And 
if that course of events had really taken place, then, 
we must allow, a visit to the coast of Spain would have 
been so far antecedently probable, that if, in the records 
of a year or more, any hiatus of time and action (other- 
wise unaccounted for) could have made room for it, the 
execution of that design might have had some right to 
claim admission into the vacant interval of history. 

But, taking the actual state of things as here col- 
lected from the Epistles, we find in every fact a clear 
tendency to the opposite conclusion. Instead of seek- 
ing new converts in a land of the farther West unknown, 
he naturally turns his thoughts from Rome to those 
faithful brethren in the East, from whom he had been 
so long cruelly separated. To the Colossians and 
Philippians, and to their churches, the object of his 
just affection and anxiety, not long before his deliver- 



APPENDIX F. NOTE I. i73 

ance he promises, in the event of his liberation, as early 
a visit, as he can afterwards by any means make good. 
In the Epistles, 1 Tim. and Titus, which, on our cal- 
culation, come next after those alluded to, we find him 
actually to have been not long ago in Crete, afterwards 
at Ephesus, and now at Philippi, on the eve of an ex- 
pedition to the N. W. of Greece, intending to winter 
at Nicopolis. 

In perfect consistency at all points with these and 
other movements, when again from Rome and towards 
the fatal close of his second imprisonment, he writes, 
the second time, to Timothy, then probably as we have 
seen at Philippi ; every particular reference either to 
person or place concurs with the supposition, that his 
anxieties were all turned to that eastern province which 
he had recently visited. And thus, by positive indica- 
tions, it is shown, how the interval between the two 
imprisonments had been sufficiently occupied ; while, 
by his total silence in regard to Spain, ever since he 
wrote Rom. xv. 24. 28., it clearly appears, that the 
project to visit its coasts had long been entirely given 
up. 



The remainder of this dissertation, as of necessity 
running into matters of critical remark, is here pre- 
sented in a different form. The general reader may 
pass it over ; the scholar, it is hoped, will find himself 
rewarded in the perusal. 



Note I. 

And here, I confess, were it purely a question to be 
decided on direct historical grounds alone, I should without 
scruple have taken my stand, and regarded the point as fairly 



174 APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 

settled in the negative ; that St. Paul had indeed at one time 
intended to visit Spain, but at the close of a long series of 
adverse events had felt himself, consistently with other duties, 
unable so to do, if indeed he had not rather abandoned all 
intention of the kind long before. 

Even thus, Cardinal Cajetan, in his Commentary on the 
Epistles (Parisiis, m.d.xxxvi.) when he comes to the text, 
Rom. xv. [28.] 

Redibo per vos in Hispaniam, 
determines the matter in a very just and summary way, 
satisfactory at once, I think, to every unprejudiced mind. 

" Dicit quod intendit; sed aliud disposuit Spiritus Sanctus, 
quandoquidem vinctus fuit in Hierusalem," &c. 



But inasmuch as the sincere feeling of respect is due to the 
piety and learning of those excellent persons, who have 
latterly revived the subject of St. Paul's visit to Spain from 
its necessity for establishing their favourite notion that he 
might preach the gospel in Britain also ; a few pages more 
shall be devoted to the consideration of the one journey, and 
if that be negatived, I may without offence reasonably de- 
cline all farther notice of the other. 

Briefly, therefore, let me endeavour to show under what 
circumstances the apostle appears to have conceived the idea 
of going to Spain at all; for otherwise its original rationality 
might not be justly apprehended. And then, however 
briefly, the entire deficiency shall be pointed out in that 
evidence ; by which such a design, if it had ever been exe- 
cuted, would naturally have been recorded afterwards. 

In the first place, it is deserving of observation, that St. 
Paul represents himself as in a very peculiar predicament, 
when he wrote the latter part of the Epistle to the Romans. 
He had recently arrived in Corinth from that scene of apos- 
tolic labour, Rom. xv. 19., in the Macedonic confines of 
Illyricum, or even in Dalmatia, the southern part of the 
region so called. And at v. 20. he particularly intimates that 
he had been engaged in striving to preach the gospel where 
Christ was not vet named, lest he should build upon another 



APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 175 

man's foundation. Now, therefore, vv. 19. 23., after he had 
fully preached the gospel wherever he could do so without 
intruding on the province of any other man, from Jerusalem 
even unto Illyricum ; when he had no more place for such 
labour in those parts, he naturally turned his thoughts at 
length to a new and yet more distant field for evangelic culti- 
vation. And having for many years, v. 23., entertained a 
great desire to come unto the brethren at Rome, the apostle 
now declares, that in case of his taking the journey which he 
had meditated into Spain, he would see them in the way, 
hoping for their assistance also to forward him thither. 

What knowledge of facts, it may here be asked, and, human- 
ly speaking, what encouragement, could have impelled the 
apostle, when at Corinth, to think of so extraordinary an en- 
terprise ? For the name of Spain, be it remembered, except 
in Rom. xv. 24. 28., is never once mentioned in the sacred 
volume ; and in that enumeration of Jews at Jerusalem on 
the day of Pentecost, A. ii. 5., though they are said to be 
" out of every nation under heaven," strangers from Spain 
there are none. And yet it must have been in the prospect 
of finding some of the children of Israel established on that 
coast, that agreeably to his line of procedure every where 
else Paul would ever have thought of commencing to preach 
the gospel in Spain. 

Only suppose him once to have known of any settlement of 
Jews in that country : and their very remoteness and destitu- 
tion would form, to a spirit of Christian heroism like his, a 
sufficient motive to go there and offer to them, in the first 
instance, his " kinsmen according to the flesh," the glad 
tidings of salvation through the name of Christ Jesus. 

Fortunately, then, we possess in the persons of Aquila and 
Priscilla, early sojourners in Rome, A. xviii. 2., peculiar ad- 
vantage from that position for their knowing the existence 
and state of their Jewish brethren on the coast of Spain, and 
from their afterwards meeting Paul at Corinth, the certainty 
that he might profit by their intelligence. Then, too, at the 
very time that he wrote thus to the Roman church, Aquila 
and Priscilla were once more domiciled in that city ; and to 



176 APPENDIX F. NOTE T. 

them, his " helpers in Christ Jesus," if he had gone to Rome, 
he would have immediately betaken himself. 

By the kind information of Professor Hyman Hurwitz, I 
am enabled also to state it as the opinion of many learned 
men of his nation, that there were Jews in Spain long prior 
to the destruction of the Second Temple, and that many of 
the Jews brought by Pompey to Rome had found their way 
into that country either as slaves or as free men for the sake 
of commerce. 

Thus much for the apostolic journey as originally projected. 
That is, we are quite satisfied, and readily concede, that after 
his last recorded visit to Jerusalem, had he not been appre- 
hended there, St. Paul might have immediately set off for 
Rome ; and when he had first been " somewhat filled with 
the company" of the brethren there, Rom. xv. 24., by the 
co-operation of Aquila and Priscilla amongst others, he might 
have been forwarded to some known settlement of Jews on 
the eastern coast of Spain. 

But what is gained by this concession ? Does it follow, 
that under a total change of circumstances when five years 
had elapsed, he was then bound to carry such a design into 
execution ? If so, some definite time must be fixed for it. 
After liberation from his first imprisonment at Rome? The 
sacred narrative, as developed in these pages, forbids that 
idea. On his return from what is here called the Fourth 
Progress, and before his second imprisonment ? The deve- 
lopement of the period connected with that event equally 
excludes any such supposition. 

Waiving the farther consideration of internal evidence from 
the Acts, which never mention Spain, and from the seven 
latest epistles which are utterly silent on the subject, let us 
pass at once to the testimony which authors of a subsequent 
age bear to the negative or the affirmative side of the question. 

I assert, then, without fear of contradiction, that down to 
the time of Eusebius inclusive, no writer (except it be Caius 
the Presbyter, to whom the Note II., at the close of this, 
shall be devoted,) can be produced as vouching for the fact of 
Paul's journey to Spain. 

In the very first rank of authors quoted to prove the 



APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 177 

affirmative, Clemens, long after his own time for distinction 
surnamed Romanus, has been brought forward, as affording 
indisputable testimony to the fact in question ; whereas the 
famous passage in s. 5., from that Epistle to the Corinthians, 
if the common principles of interpretation be followed, affords 
the strongest evidence which all but direct negation can 
supply, to the contrary. 

Here, then, is the original Greek, with the lacunae in the 
text, as filled up by Patricius Junius, the first editor, — 

Aia £>jAov o TLccvKos vnofLOVYis (3p<x£s~iGV a7reo~p£SV, s7rT«xj£ §s<T[a<x 
<pops<ra,$, 7ra<Ssu0£»£, A*0a<r0£j£, 

1. xr)pv% ysvopevos sv t= ry avaroArj xct) ev ry §uo~sj, 

2. to ysvvcciov tyis 7rlvTeoo$ uvtov xXeoc I'Aa^sv, 

3. §ix<xk)g6vyiv SiSaj-af oAov tov xoo-pov, 

4. xat fc7rt to Tspi^a. ty)$ $6<reoo$ lA0wv, 

5. Kod f^a.pTupYj(rui en) tcov Yiyovfxsvoov, 

6. ovtw$ a7njAAay>) tov x6o~(J.ov, 

xa) e\$ tov ayjov tottov s7ropsu^, v7ro[xovr]g yevofxsvog fj,eyio~Tog 

V7T0ypCl(Jl,p0$. 

And here is the plain English of it, — 
Through bigotry, Paul obtained the reward of long- 
suffering. After seven times wearing bonds, after being- 
scourged, after being stoned. 

1. after preaching the gospel in the East and in the West, 

2. he received the glorious renown due to his faith : 

3. having taught righteousness to the whole world, 

4. and having gone to the limit of the West, 

5. and having born his testimony (as a martyr) before the 
governors, 

6. he then departed out of this world, 

and went his way to that holy place, after having exhibited in 
his person the greatest pattern of patient endurance. 

Now what I maintain without scruple, is this : that the 
local designation in line 4. must, in natural continuity of 
sense, be taken as that also of line 5. And since, in line 5., 
the scene intended must be the city of Rome, no other mean- 
ing in the natural construction of sentences can be given to 



178 APPENDIX F, NOTE I. 

line 4. which immediately precedes it. The two lines will 
then be thus translated, -— 

4. having gone to the limit of the West, i. e. Rome, 

5. and having borne his testimony, 

i. e. been condemned as a martyr, 
before the governors there. 

Or to fix more clearly still the just apprehension of the whole 
matter : if the Greek words in line 4. were calculated (which 
I deny) to suggest the idea of Spain from the pen of Cle- 
mens, then to prevent Spain from being taken as the locality 
of martyrdom also in line 5., completeness of sense would 
demand some addition to the following effect. Less than this 
would not suffice : — ■ 

4. xa) stti to repfjux. Tyjj Sucrecoj eA0a>v, 

and having gone to the extremity of the West, to Spain* 

sxeiQsv de v7ro(TTps^/ac, 

and having returned from thence, from Spain, 

5. sir a [xcipTupYjo-ac, in) tmv Yiyov[j,evcuv 9 

after that having been condemned before the governors as a 
martyr in Rome, &c. &c. 

The objection thus developed, which lies against the for- 
mality of the expression, as showing that the language is 
deficient for the purpose, might of itself go near to settle the 
point at issue. 

But a stronger remark, more substantially affecting the 
question, is in reserve. Neither Clemens could intend, nor 
could the Corinthians understand in those words of line 4. 
that Spain was signified. 

East and West are relative terms, which can only be under- 
stood by ascertaining the point of reference in the mind of 
the speaker ; as that again must be determined by knowing 
him and his notions on the subject, the notions also of the 
persons addressed, and even those of the parties who are the 
subjects of discourse. 

Keeping all this in mind, we may fairly ask, When Cle- 
mens, himself more an eastern than a western, writes con- 
cerning Paul, whose chief labours had lain in the East, to the 



APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 179 

Corinthians, whose position naturally gave them an eastward 
inclination ; would those Corinthians, on reading the passage 
here exhibited, without any significant hint from the context, 
discover in the words sw) to reppx rrjs Suo-scac, that not imperial 
Rome, but som« obscure spot in remote Spain, was there in- 
tended ? Ail circumstances fully taken into consideration, I 
affirm that they could not so understand the language of 
Clemens; nor if such had been his meaning in writing to 
them, could he ever have left it in words of such inevitable 
uncertainty. Spain was very little likely to be known or 
thought of, on the coasts of the iEgean sea: Rome must 
have formed the limit of their general acquaintance with the 
West. 

Briefly, th^n, and to conclude this part of the discussion, 
Clemens, heretofore the " fellow-labourer" of the now sainted 
apostle, could hardly fail to determine the extreme points of 
his travels in the way in which they stood actually recorded. 
By the terms in line 1., 

ev r= rfi uvcito\y> xa) Iv ry $U(rei, 
Clemens would probably allude to Paul's own designation, 

Rom. xv. 19. From Jerusalem, and round about unto 
Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 

And in using the stronger phrase in line 4., 
km to Tep^u Tr,$ $6<rsooe, 
it is likely enough, that he had in mind that memorable pas- 
sage of the Acts, 

xxiii. 11. And the night following the Lord stood by him, 
and said, Be of good cheer, Paul ; for as thou hast testified 
of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at 
Rome. 

Those cities, indeed, we may consider as the two limits 
divinely marked for the apostolic missions of Paul. Spain, 
after all, was only the occasional object of thought to the 
apostle : no authority from his divine Master appears to have 
directed him to any such enterprise. 



When I said that to the time of Eusebius inclusive, no 
writer (except Caius the presbyter, who shall be duely esti- 

N 2 



180 APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 

mated in Note II.) can be produced as at all vouching for the 
fact of Paul's ever visiting Spain ; I was aware, that the name 
of Hippolytus (Portuensis) has been brought forward as giving 
an early authority to that tradition. No one, however, now 
disputes that the author of the work so quoted, " Indiculus 
de xii apostolis," must have been the Hippolytus who lived in 
the tenth century : and of course not a word needs to be said 
upon that subject. 

We pass on, therefore, at once to Eusebius, the professed 
historian of the Christian church down to the year a. d. 324, 
with a collection of all the principal books then extant before 
him, and what is remarkable enough, certainly the epistle of 
Clemens among the rest. 

Does Eusebius, then, know any thing of such a journey 
undertaken by St. Paul ? Not an iota of it appears in the 
pages of his Ecclesiastical History : or rather, indeed, if plain 
and direct omission can prove any thing, let me appeal with 
confidence to the following passages of first-rate import ; 
from the translation by C. F. Cruse, M. A., London, 1838. 

Bk. in. ch. i. " Why should we speak of Paul, spreading 
the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and finally 
suffering martyrdom at Rome, under Nero?" 

Ibid. ch. iv. " That Paul preached to the Gentiles, and esta- 
blished churches from Jerusalem, and around as far as Illyri- 
cum, is evident both from his own expressions, and from the 
testimony of Luke in the book of Acts.'' 

Surely, to omit all mention of such a fact, on the very 
occasions where he might have inserted, and from its import- 
ance he ought to have inserted it, must be considered as 
decisive proof, either that Eusebius had never read of the 
journey to Spain, or never on any authority which could 
sanction the acknowledgment of his belief in it as true and 
certain matter for history. 

How then, it may be said, can the story be accounted for, 
which afterwards appears in the pages of Chrysostom, Theo- 
doret, and others ? The following conjecture is offered, as 
showing the probable way in which this matter might 
originate. 

We read in Irenaeus, L. i. c. iii., who is dated about a.d. 170, 



APPENDIX F. NOTE I. 181 

that " neither do the churches, founded in Germany, believe 
or transmit doctrines different from others, nor those in Spain, 
qvts sv Tdlg 'I^Yjpiuig, nor those among the Celts, nor in the 
East, in Egypt, and Libya, and in the middle parts of the 
world." 

Such is the representation, incidentally given by Irenaeus, 
of churches then as founded in Spain, a hundred years at 
least, after the period when Paul is supposed to have taken 
that journey. But as regards the national name, that is 
expressed by a different word, 'l^picn^ and not by the word 
in Romans xv. 24. 28., which is ^7rav/#v. Now this differ- 
ence, if it be insufficient to prove that the writer's knowledge 
of what then existed in Spain, bore no reference to the apostle 
as its author, seems at any rate to indicate, that the writer had 
not that passage of the sacred text then in his mind. 

In the lapse of two hundred years after this testimony of 
Irenaeus, we are certain, that a still wider extension of the 
Christian faith took place in that country, which must have 
become generally known to other Christian communities. 

From these premises, what may we reasonably conclude, at 
the close of the fourth century? It is highly probable, that 
along with the intention or hope once announced by St. 
Paul to visit Spain, the fact of churches now so widely esta- 
blished in it, would, in pious and imaginative minds, be readily 
combined, and produce, as a natural effect, the attribution of 
the whole establishment there to the great apostle as to its 
primary founder. 

Hence, too, a fervent orator like Chrysostom (dated 
a. d. 398), without any misgiving or doubt, but without such 
belief as careful investigation alone could justify, would kindle 
with the glorious theme ; and to magnify St. Paul as the 
Hercules of Christianity, would carry him on, in his heroic 
enterprises, to the very extremity of the western world. Rhe- 
torical flourishes are in their nature contagious ; and what 
was once oratorically said by Chrysostom, would be echoed 
and re-echoed by others, without a grain of evidence or 
historical truth being ever thrown into the scale of its 
credibility. 

Should the great names of Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, 

N 3 



182 APPENDIX F. NOTE II. 

Epiphanius, and Jerome, be objected as of somewhat earlier 
date and authority than that of Chrysostom, I am duely 
aware, from a work (of the 16th century) reprinted at Chi- 
chester in 1819, by the late venerable Bishop Burgess, 
De Pauli apostoli itinere in Hispaniam 
Disputationes duce, auctore Pererio Valentino, 
that those writers are there so quoted ; and I do not mean to 
deny that they have in the main been quoted truely. But I 
confidently maintain that after 1 the time of Eusebius's Eccle- 
siastical History, mere obiter assertions of Paul having gone 
into Spain are entitled to no serious regard ; as having origi- 
nated much in the same way, in which, it is here conjectured, 
the mind of Chrysostom might have conceived that splendid 
idea, if he had not caught it from the suggestion of others. 



Note II. 

On the supposed Authority of Caius, the Presbyter. 

In the Reliquice Sacrce of the learned and excellent Dr. 
Routh, vol. iv. pp. 1. . .37., there is given Fragmentum incerti 
auctoris de canone S. Scripturarum, with large annotations 
from the pen of Dr. Routh, and including extracts from 
Muratori, its first editor, and from Freindaller, its latest. 

That paragraph of the fragment, p. 4., which begins " Acta 
autem omnium apostolorum ... seems to have been welcomed 
as strongly contributing to establish for a fact profectionem 
Pauli ab urbe ad Spaniam projiciscentis." Those words are de- 
cisively so considered by Mr. Greswell, Dissertations, &c, 
vol. iv. pp. 225, 6. 

My objections to the validity of such inference from such 
authority are the following, stated with as much brevity, as 
the case will allow, to those readers who have Dr. Routh's 
book before them. 

That paragraph, then, as it now stands, attributes to St. 
Luke in the Acts a declaration of the martyrdom of St. 
Peter, for which the editor refers, in the Note, to John xxi. 



APPENDIX F. NOTE II. 183 

18, 19., as if that were its verification; and for the journey 
of St. Paul to Spain, which also St. Luke is affirmed to have 
declared, the editor refers to Rom. xv. 24. 28., as if that 
afforded the satisfaction required. 

Now is it possible, let me ask, that he who originally wrote 
thus, if such indeed was his meaning, could have been himself 
an intelligent man ? Or if intelligence be allowed in the first 
instance to the writer, are we not driven to conclude, that the 
original manuscript must have suffered strange corruption in 
the hands of its several transcribers, to exhibit such striking 
signs of error and obscurity as it now does ? 

For argument's sake, let us overlook what is thus grossly 
objectionable, and let us concede that the passage, even as it 
stands, records an early opinion in favour of St. Paul's having 
travelled into Spain. What is the whole amount of its value, 
taken at the highest, at Muratori's own estimate? but that 
Caius the presbyter, at the close of the second century, was 
author of the fragment, and in those words delivered his own 
belief of the journey alluded to. 

Even so much concession of its being genuine and true 
would still carry little weight in the balance against other 
facts and considerations, which are here advanced on the con- 
trary side. 

But fortunately, perhaps, a clue seems to be afforded by 
internal evidence at once to account for that opinion of the 
anonymous writer, and to show the invalidity of its foundation. 
The editor of the fragment, at pp. 4, 5., on the paragraph 
which follows that already mentioned, clearly indicates, that 
he understood the principal epistles of St. Paul to have been 
taken by the author of it in this order of succession : to the 
Corinthians in the first, to the Romans in the seventh and 
last place of the whole ! 

Therefore, Caius the presbyter (or whoever it was else) if 
he proceeded at all logically on that calculation to its natural 
consequences, must have imagined that only a short interval 
before St. Paul's coming as a prisoner to Rome, preceded the 
declaration (Rom. xv. 24. 28.) of his design to visit Spain, 
and that the very first step which he took after his deliverance, 
would be to execute that intention. 

N 4 



184 APPENDIX G. S. 1. 

From false premises thus assumed (in common with others, 
perhaps,) by the author of that fragment, the false conclusion 
would follow naturally enough, that Paul did accomplish the 
purpose which, under those circumstances, he had announced. 
And on this easy hypothesis, with so much gross neglect of 
apostolic chronology, besides other points of ignorance alleged 
against him by his own editors, the erroneous imagination of 
that author may, I think, be fairly accounted for, reducing 
the value of his authority in the scale to very little above 
nothing. 

And no consideration, let me add, but that of very deep 
and sincere respect for the names mingled up with this ques- 
tion, could have induced me to bestow on the point before us 
a serious and continued attention, far beyond what, from its 
own merits, it might otherwise demand. 



Appendix G. 



Which, from the conjecture on Titus hi. 13. ins.2., 
may be assigned to p. 123. of this work. 



s. 1. On the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
s. 2. On the two persons who might have been the 
bearers of it. 



s. 1. In the title to his Hor^: Paulinje, Dr. Paley 
distinctly says, The Truth of the Scripture History of 
St. Paul, evinced by a comparison of the Epistles which 
bear his name, &c. ; and immediately in the Exposition 
of the argument, he says again, The volume of Christian 
Scriptures contains thirteen Letters purporting to be 



APPENDIX G. S. 1. 185 

ivritten by St. Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
which certainly does not bear his name as the other 
epistles bear it, is thus excluded by Dr. Paley from that 
catalogue: which exclusion must, then, have arisen from 
some want of clear and entire satisfaction in his mind 
as to its having been the genuine or the direct work of 
St. Paul. 

In his Evidences of Christianity, published four years 
after the Hor^: Paulinje, Dr. Paley speaks more ex- 
plicitly. " I allege this epistle [to the Hebrews] 
without hesitation : for, whatever doubts may have 
been raised about its author, there can be none con- 
cerning the age in which it was written. No epistle 
in the collection carries about it more indubitable 
marks of antiquity, than this does," &c. &c. Note. 
pp. 70, 1. Edit. 1825. 

After all the doubts, however, and disquisitions which 
have arisen on this subject, and notwithstanding what 
must always be felt, the marked difference of style and 
manner which distinguishes that from the other writings 
of the apostle ; I yet very sincerely receive the Epistle 
to the Hebrews as essentially stamped with the apostolic 
authority of St. Paul himself. 

That it should wear so much the character of an 
argumentative discourse and so little present that of an 
epistolary address, is, at all events, the natural conse- 
quence of its immediate object, to reason on the high 
mission and divine nature of our blessed Lord with the 
Hebrew Christians from their own sacred books : to 
which Hebrew Christians, however, generally speaking, 
St. Paul had become more or less obnoxious, as the 
apostle of the Gentiles, and the assertor of their evan- 
gelical liberty. 

The greater part of that class of men would of course 
be strangers to the person of St. Paul : and yet some 



186 APPENDIX G. S. 1. 

of them could hardly fail to recognise the writer, to- 
wards the close of the epistle, when he acknowledges 
the compassion which they had shown to him in his 
bonds, x. 33, 4., while at Cesarea apparently, and the 
joyful contribution of their goods to the relief of his 
necessities there. 

Writing in a situation so very peculiar, though St. 
Paul did not like immediately to avow, himself as the 
author, yet, from other indications of a personal nature, 
it may appear, that he did not ultimately intend to dis- 
avow it or to conceal himself. Two passages, pointed 
out as very decisive, are the following : — 

xiii. 19. But I beseech you the rather to do this, 
that I may be restored to you the sooner. 
— 23. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at 
liberty ; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. 

But, singularly enough, although those passages might 
be sufficiently clear at the time of writing, in the present 
day, it must be confessed, some ambiguity hangs on 
both of them : for neither does the one Greek word in 
v. 19., oL7roxoLTOL<7TaQuy, belong to the phraseology of St. 
Paul, nor can the other, v. 23., cbroAsAu/AsW, be so 
certainly claimed, in that signification, as entirely to 
forbid a different meaning which the context does not 
exclude, being allowed by Ms friends to depart. 

It may not, however, be impertinent or unprofitable 
to remark, that for establishing the great point pro- 
posed in the H. P., even if the Epistle to the Hebrews 
had been always received as from the pen of St. Paul, 
still it could not be made tributary to the purpose of 
Dr. Paley ; from its being necessarily destitute of those 
many references to places, persons, and facts, materials, 
so richly found in the thirteen epistles, to show un- 
designed coincidence with the Acts. But then this 
acknowledged peculiarity in that epistle, so long as 



APPENDIX G. S. 2. 187 

other considerations are not wanting to counterbalance 
it, may not be allowed to carry decisive weight in 
settling so complex a question as that of its authorship. 

s. 2. Out of the notion (first briefly started by Luther, 
in Genes, xlviii. 20., and lately much favoured abroad) 
that Apollos might be the author, a different idea has 
arisen in my mind ; an idea, original perhaps, and yet 
not beyond the range of probability, which would dis- 
cover the commissioned bearers of it to the Hebrews in 
Judea. 

In Acts xviii. 24... 28. Apollos, we are told, being 
an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, passed 
over from Ephesus to Corinth ; and there mightily 
convinced the Jews, and that publickly, showing by the 
Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ, the Messiah. Ir 
therefore at a later day any man but St. Paul could be 
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, or if the 
hand of any other man could be employed under his 
direction to write it, Apollos, it must be allowed, was 
altogether peculiarly qualified for that purpose. 

And for such a sacred purpose, why should we doubt 
or deny, that a guiding inspiration might be given to 
the pen of such a writer ? 

But, at all events, if to secure for that great doctrinal 
argument a favourable reception with the Hebrews ad- 
dressed as such, it was necessary somehow to introduce 
the epistle in the first instance and try its effect, with- 
out declaring St. Paul to be the author of it ; no Chris- 
tian brother was more likely, with pleasing eloquence 
and in a conciliatory spirit, to deliver and recommend 
it to an audience of learned Jews, than Apollos. 

Under this latter impression, especially, I have been 
sometimes inclined to fancy, that we have an unexplained 
text ready to bear application to that very end. And 



188 APPENDIX G. S. 2. 

if any calculation of time, place, and circumstance, in 
these matters, would otherwise allow, it has struck my 
mind to interpret the following words of Paul to Titus, 
as of much more distinct importance than at first sight 
may be thought : — 

Tit. iii. 13. Bring (or forward) Zenas the lawyer 
and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing 
be wanting unto them. 

Now, as it is very clear that so critical a task as that 
of presenting the epistle without its writer's name, 
would never be consigned to any common messenger, 
we may well suppose, that St. Paul would select the 
most intelligent of his friends and followers to be au- 
thorised and instructed accordingly. 

Here, then, we have Apollos eminently accomplished 
and zealous in the cause, with Zenas the lawyer (inter- 
preter and teacher of the law), announced as on some 
important mission from St. Paul ; and they are par- 
ticularly commended to Titus to be by him forwarded 
from Crete with all possible diligence, more probably, 
at least, to the coast of Palestine than to any other that 
can be named. 



189 



INDEX 



OF 



THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES 



IN 



THE CONTINUOUS HISTORY. 



APOLLOS, native of Alexandria. 

i. His name first appears in that digression assigned to it, 
of five verses, A. xviii. 24.... 28., which carries him from 
Ephesus into Achaia, 

ii. Where after being for some time a faithful minister 
in icatering, 1 Cor. iii. 5., where Paul had planted, displeased 
with the faction at Corinth, to which the eloquence of his 
preaching had given rise in the church there, Appendix D. 
s. 1. p. 153.; 

iii. That he might be no longer the cause of religious di- 
vision (1 Coit. i. 12.) he took the opportunity, apparently, of 
that deputation from Corinth to St. Paul at Ephesus, to pass 
over into Asia, intending (as 1 Cor. xvi. 12. seems to show) 
not to return to Corinth for some time at least. Though 
" greatly desired " by St. Paul, he would not then return, 
with the brethren ; nor does it appear that he ever did so. 

iv. Probably indeed he now remained at Ephesus per- 
manently: nor is any thing heard of him, either there or 
elsewhere, 

v. Till in the Epistle to Titus, iii. 13., and engaged in 
some Christian service under the apostle; whom, according 
to our idea of the Fourth Progress, he might have very 
recently seen at Ephesus. 



190 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 

N.B. On the name of Apollos, as possibly requiring to 
be connected with the Epistle to the Hebrews, vide Ap- 
pendix G, pp. 187, 8. 



AQUILA and PRISCILLA, 
Remarkable Jews of the dispersion. 

i. Aquila, A. xviii. 1. ...born in Pontus, afterwards settled 
at Rome, 

But driven from thence with his wife Priscilla by the edict 
of Claudius, and settled in Corinth, where Paul abode and 
wrought with them, being tent-makers. 

ii. A. xviii. 18, 19. Paul, on leaving Corinth, took them 
with him to Ephesus; where, after Paul's departure, they 
had the opportunity, ibid. 26., to instruct Apollos in the 
Christian revelation, which he had known but imperfectly 
before. 

ill- They stayed there till Paul's second visit to that city, 
A. xix. 1., when in writing to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. xvi. 
19., he says, " Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the 
Lord, with the church that is in their house." 

iv. After that date, and during the interval (H. P. 17, 18.) 
of Paul's travelling elsewhere, A. xx. 1, 2., there appears time 
quite sufficient for them both to have gone to Rome and to 
have been heard of as resident there ; 

v. When Paul at Corinth, A. xx. 2, 3., in writing to the 
Romans, Rom. xvi. 3., mentions them with particular kind- 
ness. " Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ 
Jesus," &c. pp. 68, 9. of this work. 

vi. Finally, it seems probable, that they settled at Ephesus 
or near that city ; as may be gathered from the salutation to 
them, 2 Tim. iv. 19., along with Onesiphorus's household 
certainly at Ephesus; which Timothy, on his then arranged 
visit to Ephesus, was instructed to deliver. 



When we survey these different movements, in the personal 
history of Aquila and Priscilla, it is obvious to remark, that 
by means such as these a very extensive intelligence would 



ERASTUS. 191 

easily be carried on through different parts of the Roman 
world; while to the intercourse of Christian brethren and 
Christian churches, that facility and frequency of commu- 
nication must have proved highly favourable. The readiness 
with which Aquila and Priscilla in particular moved from 
one distant place to another, and the thanks which " all the 
churches of the Gentiles,'' Rom. xvi. 4., gave to them, taken 
together, may seem to indicate, that Aquila's working with 
his own hands, A. xviii. 3., was only a temporary exigency, to 
a man otherwise not poor and most certainly generous. 



ERASTUS, the Corinthian. 



The name of Erastus occurs in the following passages, 
A. xix. 22. Rom. xvi. 23. 2 Tim. iv. 20. 

i. To account for Erastus, A. xix. 22., being now found in 
Asia, it is fairly supposed, at A. xviii. 1 8. p. 52., that on St. 
Paul's then leaving Corinth, both Timothy and Erastus (as 
being mentioned conjointly, A. xix. 22.) bore him company 
from thence, A. xviii. 22., to Jerusalem and to Antioch, and 
so, on his Third Progress, xix. 1., to Ephesus also. 

This opinion of the early day at which Erastus first joined 
the apostle, I now consider as marked with the highest pro- 
bability : the notion of his having afterwards been one in the 
deputation from Corinth, pp.61, 2., is highly improbable. 

However that may be, Erastus along with Timothy was 
now sent from Ephesus by Paul on a preparatory mission to 
Philippi; and as it appears (2 Cor. i. 1.) that Timothy was 
still in Macedonia when Paul arrived, Erastus also might still 
be there. In that case, they would both minister (Timothy 
certainly did) unto the apostle, during his travels in the north- 
west of Greece, A. xx. 2., till on his return he reached the 
capital of Achaia. 

ii. Rom. xvi. 23. At all events, when Paul, soon after 
writing from Corinth, concludes his Epistle to the Romans, 
" Erastus, the chamberlain of the city," -he says, " saluteth 



192 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 

you : " which upon the whole may more probably be inter- 
preted to mean, that he had been chamberlain, than that he 
was so then. In either case, it sufficiently shows the re- 
spectability and rank, which Erastus held among his fellow- 
citizens. 

iii. 2 Tim. iv. 20. Paul here, in the retrospect of his Fourth 
apostolic Progress, says, that " Erastus abode at Corinth;" 
which intimates, that Erastus had been in his company, before 
they arrived at that city. 

Probably enough 9 when Titus summoned from Crete took 
Corinth on his way to Nicopolis, he was joined by Erastus 
from thence. And if so, he may have become the companion 
of Paul when the apostle passed the winter in Nicopolis and 
preached the gospel in that neighbourhood. Tit. iii. 12. 



GAIUS o? Derbe, 



As distinguished from Gains, the Macedonian, mentioned, 
A. xix. 29., along with Aristarchus, and like him, A. xx. 4. 
xxvii. 2., probably a Macedonian of Thessalonica. 

The other Gaius, A. xx. 4., was clearly a native of Derbe, 
quite remarkable (H. P. 182.) as the only city in which Paul 
suffered no persecution or trouble ; whereas in each of the 
three cities through which he had previously passed, Antioch 
in Pisidia, Iconium, and Lystra, he had been persecuted 
grievously. 

We afterwards find this same Gaius at Corinth, apparently 
settled there as a rich householder, and denominated by Paul 
when he wrote to the Romans, xvi. 23., " my host and of 
the whole church." If then he was thus " wealthy and bene- 
volent" in character, and had enjoyed opportunity to hear 
the preaching of Paul at Derbe either on the occasion, A. xiv. 
21., or that of xvi. 1... 3., or on both occasions; then might 
he easily find the means from Derbe to visit Corinth, and 
settling there be known (1 Cor. i. 14.) as one of the few 
converts whom Paul had baptized with his own hands. 



ILLYRICUM. — JERUSALEM. 1£)3 

All this becomes the more probable from the contiguity of 
Lystra to Derbe, and from the association of Gaius's name so 
directly with that of Timothy, A. xx. 4. And under the 
several circumstances fairly put together, we may even con- 
clude, that it was the personal influence of Gaius, from such 
wealth and such benevolence, that (humanly speaking) se- 
cured for Paul, when in Derbe, an exemption from hostility 
and ill usage which he experienced no where else. pp. 21, 2. 



ILLYRICUM, 



If viewed as at p. 67., on Acts xx. 2., becomes an important 
region in the apostolic history. 

From Rom. xv. 19. it appears, that St. Paul had on that 
occasion completed his visitation of Macedonia towards the 
north-west where it joins on Illyricum. 

At pp. 122, 3., on TiT.iii. 12., it is seen, that he had planned, 
after preaching in other parts, to winter at Nicopolis : 

And in 2 Tim. iv. 10., p. 127., we find Titus to have been 
recently despatched into the southern part of Illyricum, into 
Dalmatia. 

Thus the gospel may seem to have spread somewhat ex- 
tensively along the eastern coast of the Adriatic and to have 
afforded large occupation, however imperfectly now known 
to us, both to the zeal of the apostle and to that of his mis- 
sionary Titus. 



JERUSALEM. 



In two of the three recorded Progresses of Paul, before 
he returned to Antioch, he included in the plan of his move- 
ments a visit to the Holy City, at one or other of the great 
feasts. 

After his second Progress, in A. xviii. 21, 2. 



194 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 

" I must by all means keep this feast, that cometh in 
Jerusalem. 

And when he had landed at Cesarea, and gone up, i. e. to 
Jerusalem, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch." 

After his third Progress, we have the intention and the 
execution of it thus told. 

A. xx. 16. He hasted, if it were possible for him to be at 
Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. 

xxi. 15. And after those days, we took up our carriages, 
and went up to Jerusalem. 

As connected with his great Progresses, these are the only 
two visits recorded in the Acts. But at a period antecedent 
to those visits, two other, and direct, journies were under- 
taken by him ; during the long time, A. xiv. 28., that Barnabas 
and he abode with the disciples at Antioch. 

The first in these papers is styled the private journey, p. 23., 
the second is entitled the public mission, p. 26., to Jerusalem, 
being related in Galat. ii. 1...10. and in A. xv. 1...31. re- 
spectively. 



LUKE, the Evangelist, and Physician, 

i. Probably of Antioch, and a Gentile, H. P. 148., and ap- 
parently connected (whether by his profession or not) with 
Philippi and Troas, before he met St. Paul at the latter 
place, A. xvi. 8. 10., then on his second Progress : 

ii. And having passed over with St. Paul into Europe, 
attended him, xvi. 12., to Philippi, where, after St. Paul's 
departure from that city, he remained himself without any 
annoyance ; 

iii. In all probability, till he was seen by St. Paul, when 
he visited Macedonia again, A. xx. 2. 

iv. But not sent down to Corinth with that epistle, 2 Cor. 
(notwithstanding the subscription), nor named in it, as being 
then unknown to the Corinthians. 



MALTA. 195 

v. On St. Paul's third visit to Philippi, A, xx. 3... 6., Luke 
joined his company to Troas, 

vi. And never apparently quitted him, till they both came 
to Rome together, A. xxviii. 16. 

vii. While at Cesarea, A. xxiii. 33, &c, he had probably 
availed himself of the great opportunities of that situation 
to write his Gospel under the eye of St. Paul. Vide Ap- 
pendix E. 

viii. When at Rome, being known by report, as the beloved 
physician, to the brethren at Colossae, he is joined in the 
salutation, Col-oss. iv. 14. and Philemon, ver. 24. 

ix. In the Epistle to the Philippians, written (from St. Paul's 
more immediate expectation of deliverance, i. 25, 6., ii. 24.) 
at some interval after those two, the name of Luke does 
not occur ; from whence we may fairly conclude that he was 
then gone elsewhere. 

Conjectures as to the probable place and cause of his 
absence will be found in Appendix E. 

x. If, during St. Paul's absence from Rome in his last 
apostolic Progress, Luke was at Cesarea, engaged on his 
second historical labour, App. u. s., we may well suppose, 
that after the apostle's return to Rome was made known to 
him, the well beloved Luke would lose no time in once more 
becoming his attendant in prison. 

xi. One thing is very clear, that St. Paul, at the close of 
his earthly course, being then left in comparative solitude, 
has distinctly recorded, 2 Tim. iv. 11., " Only Luke is with 
me," that is, of his earlier associates : for at the end of that 
epistle it appears he was not neglected by Eubulus, and 
Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and by other brethren un- 
named. 



MALTA, p. 104. Acts xxviii. 1. 

A paper " On the Voyage and Place of Shipwreck of St. 
Paul, by Major Rennell, F. R. S." &c. in the Archaeologia, 
vol. xxi. p. 92., will be read with much pleasure and entire 
satisfaction. 

o 2 



196 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 



PETER ; and JAMES and JOHN his brother, the two 
sons of Zebedee. 

i. This apostolic triumvirate, so frequently occurring (and 
but once in any other order, Luke ix. 28.) in the three first 
Gospels, appears in the Acts, by name, i. 13., with the other 
apostles, at Jerusalem, and virtually so, ii. 14. 

James never occurs again till A. xii. 2., where it is said, 
Herod " killed James the brother of John with the sword." 

For James the Less, vide below, s. iii. 

ii. Peter and John, so united, occur in the case of the 
lame man miraculously cured, and its remarkable conse- 
quences, A. iii. and iv., several times. 

In A. viii. 14. they are sent by the other apostles into 
Samaria, where the Holy Ghost was given, v. 18., through 
laying on of their hands ; and they return, v. 25., after 
having preached the gospel in many villages of the Sama- 
ritans. 

This is the last mention, in the Acts, of John the Evan- 
gelist. 

Incidentally, however, by Gal. ii. 9., we find, on Paul and 
Barnabas visiting Jerusalem along with Titus (time of A. xiv. 
28.) John was certainly there on that occasion. 

" James (the Less), Cephas, and John :" 

Whereas at an earlier period, Gal. i. 19.= Acts, ix. 26, 7., 
John certainly was not then in Jerusalem. 

How shall this absence of John be better accounted for, 
than on the natural supposition that the province of his 
labours now partly lay (viii. 14.) in Samaria, and in Galilee 
also, as he was by birth a Galilean ? 

iii. James the Less, whose mother was Mary, Mark xv. 
40., otherwise known, A. i. 13., as the son of Alpheus, and 
Gal. i. 19. as the Lord's brother or cousin, is first separately 
mentioned in the latter text, as the only apostle, except 
Peter, whom in that visit to Jerusalem Paul had the oppor- 
tunity to see, Gal.l 19.=A.ix. 26, 7. H. P. 89. 

Very soon after the martyrdom of James the brother of 



JAMES, CEPHAS, AND JOHN. 197 

John, James the Less begins to be spoken of in terms of dis- 
tinction. 

A.xii. 17. " Go," says Peter after his miraculous deliver- 
ance, " show these things unto James and to the brethren." 

After this period, Gal. ii. 9. (in time = A. xiv. 28.) on the 
important occasion of Paul's private visit to Jerusalem, James 
bears a prominent part. 

" And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be 
pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave 
to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship ; that we 
should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." 

At a somewhat later date, Gal. ii. 11, 12., " When Peter 
was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he 
was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, 
he did eat with the Gentiles." 

This text plainly attributes to James a kind of eminence 
or presidency in the church of Jerusalem, or at least a more 
fixed and stationary residence there. H. P. 99. 

After this again, A. xv., in the council held at Jerusalem 
upon the business of the Gentile converts, he decidedly as- 
sumes a higher place, and after Peter had spoken, vv. 7... 11. 
seems to have taken the lead. It was he who closed the de- 
bate and proposed the resolution, xv. 19., in which the council 
ultimately concurred. H. P. 99. 

After that great concern was settled, the name of Peter 
no where occurs again in the Acts : he disappears from Jeru- 
salem entirely. Into what distant scenes he afterwards tra- 
velled as the apostle of the circumcision, it is no part of my 
limited undertaking to collect from other writers or investi- 
gate for myself; unless so far as the name of Silas connected 
with that of Peter requires to be noticed in the Index. 

iv. James therefore after A. xv. remains in Jerusalem the 
acknowledged bishop of the church ; and the last mention of 
his name occurs on a very important meeting, A. xxi. 18., 
" The day following Paul went in with us unto James ; and 
all the elders were present." 

And here terminates this brief notice of Peter, James, and 
John, and of James the Less, rendered in some sort neces- 

o 3 



198 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 

sary from its connection with the apostolic history of St. 
Paul. 



SILAS or SILVANUS. H. P. 66. 

i. When Silas, A. xv. 22., first left Jerusalem as sent along 
with the decree from the council held there, it was only, as 
he thought, on the mission to Antioch, and then to return. 
Instead of that, as we have seen, A. xv. 40. p. 34., he set out 
with Paul on an indefinite line of progress, and faithfully 
accompanied him through the varied scenes, trials, and suf- 
ferings of a long and protracted absence. 

ii. After Silas along with Timothy arrived at Corinth from 
Macedonia, A. xviii. 5., and there rejoined the apostle, the 
name of Timothy does not appear again till a much later day? 
and that, at Ephesus, A. xix. 22. The name of Silas never 
again appears in the Acts. 

Now we can have little doubt but that Silas as well as 
Timothy would bear the apostle company to Jerusalem, 
A. xviii. 22. What then became of Silas ? 

iii. Nothing so natural, as that on their arrival there Silas 
should now remain in the place of his home, of his relations 
and friends; on a scene, too, be it remembered, A. xv. 22., 
where he already held a chief place among the brethren. 

iv. What partly confirms the idea that he must there have 
taken his leave of Paul, is the fact of his being afterwards 
despatched by the apostle Peter with that epistle, in which he 
is called (1 Pet. v. 12.) " a faithful brother unto you, as I 
suppose." And why was he called so ? because Peter knew 
that he had been the associate of Paul when preaching the 
gospel " in Phrygia and Galatia " certainly, A. xvi. 6. Whe- 
ther Silas after that time travelled through " Pontus, Cappa- 
docia, Bithynia," &c, 1 Pet. i. 1., must be left in the uncer- 
tainty of conjecture. 



TIMOTHY. 199 



TIMOTHY 

i. Is converted, A. xiv. 7., with Lois and Eunice, pp. 19, 
20., and received by the apostle as his personal attendant, 
A. xvi. 1, 2, 3. pp. 34, 5. 

ii. Bears Paul company all along, to Berea, A. xvii. 10., 
follows Paul to Athens, is sent back to Thessalonica, and 
thence arrives at Corinth, xviii. 5. pp. 46, 7, 8. 

hi. Accompanies Paul, via Ephesus, to Syria, goes up with 
him to Jerusalem ; and thence, to Antioch, p. 53. 

iv. On Paul's third Progress, through Galatia and Phrygia, 
to Ephesus ; from thence (along with Erastus), A. xix. 22., 
into Macedonia ; from whence he might have gone to Corinth, 
and thence back to Ephesus, but he is overtaken by Paul 
before he left Philippi, pp. 154, 5. 

v. Attends Paul through the parts N. W. of Greece, and is 
reckoned at Corinth, A. xx. 4., as one of his seven com- 
panions, on return via Troas, &c, and goes with him to 
Jerusalem. 

vi. Probably with him at Cesarea for part of the time, but 
not his companion on the voyage to Rome ; where however 
his name is found in the salutations, Col. i. 1., Phile. ver. 1. 

vii. Goes with him (and Titus) first to Crete, p. 120., then 
to Ephesus : where Paul leaves him behind, and after going 
via Troas into Macedonia, from Philippi, writes that epistle 
to him, 1 Tim. p. 121. 

viii. Apparently, after this, while Paul was yet at Nicopolis 
or in the neighbourhood, Timothy had been summoned from 
the station at Ephesus to that of Philippi, pp. 123, 4. 

Paul on his return to Rome, taking Corinth in the way, 
and wishing once more to visit the church of Ephesus, 
so much the object always of his anxiety, under those cir- 
cumstances had no opportunity to see his beloved disciple 
in Macedonia. 

At Rome, not long, it is thought, after his second arrival 
in that city, he is again persecuted and thrown into prison. 
And from thence, Timothy is addressed at Philippi in an 
epistle (2 Tim.) p. 125. ; which while it requests him to come 

o 4 



200 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES. 

to the apostle before winter, implies also his being engaged 
(via Troas) to visit Ephesus on the journey. 

Nothing more after this appears to be known ; nothing- 
can be with any probability conjectured. 



TITUS, 

Probably a native of Antioch, and there converted by St. Paul, 
Tit. i. 4. 

i. Gal. ii. 1. he is taken up by the apostle, in that the 
private journey to Jerusalem, inserted here, p. 23. after A. xiv., 
from which it appears he was a Gentile ; 

And on his return, he appears to have staid at Antioch, till 
he joined St. Paul in his third Progress, p. 56. 

ii. Is sent by him, 2 Cor. xii. 18., from Ephesus to Corinth, 
on the matters in Appendix D. p. 155. 

Ibid. ii. 13. afterwards expected at Troas, p. 156. : but vii. 
5, 6. is met in Macedonia. 

iii. Ibid. viii. 16, 17., is sent down to Corinth, on account 
of that charitable contribution, p. 157. 

iv. And most probably remains as superintendent of the 
church there, when Paul with his seven companions departed, 
A. xx. 4., and is there occupied for some years : 

v. Nor does he elsewhere appear again, till probably along 
with St. Paul at Rome, pp. 119, 120., and, then after his de- 
liverance, fixed by him, Tit. i. 5., in the episcopal care of 
Crete. 

vi. In Tit. iii. 12. he is summoned by St. Paul to Nicopolis. 

vii. Probably returns in his company to Rome ; and during 
his second imprisonment, 2 Tim. iv. 10., is despatched by the 
apostle into Dalmatia, (vide pp.67. 123. and Index, Illyricum,) 
into the scene of their former labours. 



TROAS. 201 



TROAS. 



Of places in the apostolic progresses more important than 
from the brief mention of them in the Acts or even in the 
Epistles might be thought, Troas forms a very striking 
example. 

i. Paul's first visit to that place, accompanied by Silas 
and Timothy, is narrated A. xvi. 8... p. 36., with its momen- 
tous consequences to the European world. And as Luke was 
sojourning there at the time, Troas may seem in the first in- 
stance to have been visited on its own account ; but pro- 
videntially also, for the divine purpose, to carry the gospel 
over into Macedonia, and into Greece. 

ii. Paul again visited Troas, purposely, from Ephesus, with 
expectation to meet Titus there, 2 Cor. ii. 12., in time == 
A. xx. i., when, though a door to preach Christ's gospel was 
opened unto him of the Lord, he was constrained to take his 
leave of them and to hasten into Macedonia, p. 66. 

iii. Paul visited Troas a third time, A. xx. 4, 5., having 
previously sent Timothy and his six other companions, not 
merely to wait for him till he (and Luke) arrived from Phi- 
lippi, but doubtless (H. P. 67.) to gather some of that harvest, 
which on his last hasty visit he had prematurely quitted, and 
which on this occasion he now stopped seven days to aid them 
in more fully reaping. Vide, on Acts xx. 13., p. 74. 

iv. Finally, he passed through Troas himself on his way 
from Ephesus to Philippi, p. 121., in that series of apostolic 
visits — after his deliverance from the first imprisonment at 
Rome — alluded to in 2 Tim. iv. 13., and traced out by Dr. 
Paley, H. P. 189., in what he calls " an hypothetic journey :" 
a journey however left incomplete by him, unless he had 
inserted " via, Troas" betwixt Ephesus and Macedonia. 

That particular in Paul's route is required by the passage 
in 2 Tim. iv. 3., otherwise, how could the apostle have left 
the cloke and the parchments with Carpus ? which Timothy 
at a future day was to call for, in the way from Philippi, via 
Troas to Ephesus on his own way ultimately to Rome. 



202 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL PERSONS AND PLACES, 



TYCHICUS, 

Probably an Ephesian, or of that neighbourhood, 

Is mentioned in the following passages, 

A. xx. 4. Eph. vi. 21. = Col. iv. 7. Tit. iii. 12. 

2 Tim. iv. 12. 

i. A. xx. 4. Here his name occurs for the first time, in 
conjunction with Trophimus also of Asia, as one of the seven 
companions of Paul when he departed from Corinth. 

ii. Col. iv. 7. The bearer of those Epistles from Rome, 
and expressly sent by Paul into Asia, he must have gone to 
Colossas in person, (and to other churches, Eph. vi. 21.) as 
an intelligent and affectionate messenger. 

In that neighbourhood, when Paul arrived on his Fourth 
Progress, Tychicus (and Artemas also) should seem to have 
joined the apostle again. 

iii. For in Tit. iiL 12. the apostle writes in a way to show, 
that Tychicus was then along with him or within his reach : 
he would not else speak of sending (from Macedonia) Tychicus 
(or Artemas) to relieve Titus in the episcopal government of 
Crete. A person so designed must evidently have borne a 
high character as a trustworthy and venerable man. 

iv. 2 Tim. iv. 12. In agreement with all this, we after- 
wards find Tychicus actually sent from Rome to hold that 
sacred office in the church of Ephesus, and permanently so : 
for though Timothy on his expected return to Rome would 
visit that city, he was clearly instructed by Paul not to stay 
there. 



HOILE PAULINA: 

OR, 

THE TRUTH OF THE SCKIPTUBE HISTOEY 

OF 

ST. PAUL, 

EVINCED BY A COMPARISON 

OF 

THE EPISTLES WHICH BEAR HIS NAME, 

WITH 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 

AND WITH ONE ANOTHER. 

BY WILLIAM PALEY, M.A. 

JJ 
ARCHDEACON OF CARLISLE. 



First printed in 1790, 

now carefully reprinted, with occasional notes, 

which are marked in brackets. 

1840. 



TO 

THE RIGHT REVEREND 

JOHN LAW, D.D. 

LORD BISHOP OF KILLALA AND ACHONRY, 

AS A TESTIMONY 

OF ESTEEM FOR HIS VIRTUES AND LEARNING, 

AND OF GRATITUDE FOR THE LONG AND FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP 

WITH WHICH 

THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN HONOURED 

BY HIM, 

THIS ATTEMPT TO CONFIRM THE EVIDENCE OF 

THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY 

IS INSCRIBED, 

BY HIS AFFECTIONATE AND MOST OBLIGED SERVANT, 

W. PALEY. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Exposition of the Argument 1 

The Epistle to the Romans 10 

The First Epistle to the Corinthians .... 33 
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians .... 50 

The Epistle to the Galatians 78 

The Epistle to the Ephesians 107 

The Epistle to the Philippians 132 

The Epistle to the Colossians 143 

The First Epistle to the Thessalonians . . . .150 
The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians . . . 160 

The First Epistle to Timothy .166 

The Second Epistle to Timothy 17*5 

The Epistle to Titus 184 

The Epistle to Philemon 190 

The Subscriptions of the Epistles 195 

The Conclusion 199 



THE 

TRUTH 

OP THE 

SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF ST. PAUL 

EVINCED. 



CHAPTER I. 

EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 

The volume of Christian scriptures contains thirteen 
letters purporting to be written by St. Paul ; it contains 
also a book, which, amongst other things, professes to 
deliver the history, or rather memoirs of the history, of 
this same person. By assuming the genuineness of the 
letters, we may prove the substantial truth of the history ; 
or, by assuming the truth of the history, we may argue 
strongly in support of the genuineness of the letters. 
But I assume neither one nor the other. The reader is 
at liberty to suppose these writings to have been lately 
discovered in the library of the Escurial, and to come to 
our hands destitute of any extrinsic or collateral evidence 
whatever ; and the argument I am about to offer is cal- 
culated to show, that a comparison of the different wri- 
tings would, even under these circumstances, afford good 
reason to believe the persons and transactions to have been 
real, the letters authentic, and the narration in the main 
to be true. 

Agreement or conformity between letters bearing the 
name of an ancient author, and a received history of that 
author's life, does not necessarily establish the credit of 
either : because, 



2 RORM PAULINiE. 

1. The history may, like Middleton's Life of Cicero, 
or Jortin's Life of Erasmus, have been wholly, or in part, 
compiled from the letters ; in which case it is manifest 
that the history adds nothing to the evidence already 
afforded by the letters : or, 

2. The letters may have been fabricated out of the his- 
tory ; a species of imposture which is certainly practicable ; 
and which, without any accession of proof or authority, 
would necessarily produce the appearance of consistency 
and agreement ; or, 

3. The history and letters may have been founded upon 
some authority common to both ; as upon reports and 
traditions which prevailed in the age in which they were 
composed, or upon some ancient record now lost, which 
both writers consulted : in which case also, the letters, 
without being genuine, may exhibit marks of conformity 
with the history, and the history, without being true, may 
agree with the letters. 

Agreement therefore, or conformity, is only to be re- 
lied upon so far as we can exclude these several supposi- 
tions. Now the point to be noticed is, that in the three 
cases above enumerated, conformity must be the effect of 
design. Where the history is compiled from the letters, 
which is the first case, the design and composition of the 
work are in general so confessed, or made so evident by 
comparison, as to leave us in no danger of confounding 
the production with original history, or of mistaking it 
for an independent authority. The agreement, it is pro- 
bable, will be close and uniform, and will easily be per-* 
ceived to result from the intention of the author, and from 
the plan and conduct of his work. — Where the letters 
are fabricated from the history, which is the second case, 
it is always for the purpose of imposing a forgery upon 
the public ; and, in order to give colour and probability to 
the fraud, names, places, and circumstances, found in the 
history, may be studiously introduced into the letters, as 
Avell as a general consistency be endeavoured to be main- 
tained. But here it is manifest, that whatever congruity 
appears, is the consequence of meditation, artifice, and 
design. — The third case is that wherein the history and 



EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 3 

the letters, without any direct privity or communication 
with each other, derive their materials from the same 
source ; and, by reason of their common original, furnish 
instances of accordance and correspondency. This is a 
situation in which we must allow it to be possible for an- 
cient writings to be placed ; and it is a situation in which 
it is more difficult to distinguish spurious from genuine 
writings, than in either of the cases described in the pre- 
ceding suppositions ; inasmuch as the congruities observ- 
able are so far accidental, as that they are not produced by 
the immediate transplanting of names and circumstances 
out of one writing into the other. But although, with 
respect to each other, the agreement in these writings be 
mediate and secondary, yet is it not properly or absolutely 
undesigned ; because, with respect to the common original 
from which the information of the writers proceeds, it is 
studied and factitious. The case of which we treat must, 
as to the letters, be a case of forgery ; and when the 
writer, who is personating another, sits down to his com- 
position — whether he have the history with which we 
now compare the letters, or some other record, before him ; 
or whether he have only loose tradition and reports to go 
by — he must adapt his imposture, as well as he can, to 
what he finds in these accounts ; and his adaptations will 
be the result of counsel, scheme, and industry : art must 
be employed ; and vestiges will appear of management 
and design. Add to this, that in most of the following 
examples, the circumstances in which the coincidence is 
remarked are of too particular and domestic a nature, to 
have floated down upon the stream of general tradition. 

Of the three cases which we have stated, the difference 
between the first and the two others is, that in the first 
the design may be fair and honest, in the others it must 
be accompanied with the consciousness of fraud : but in 
all there is design. In examining, therefore, the agree- 
ment between ancient writings, the character of truth and 
originality is undesignedness : and this test applies to 
every supposition ; for, whether we suppose the history 
to be true, but the letters spurious ; or the letters to be 
genuine, but the history false ; or, lastly, falsehood to be- 

b 2 



4 HORiE PAULINA. 

long to both — the history to be a fable, and the letters 
fictitious ; the same inference will result — that either 
there will be no agreement between them, or the agree- 
ment will be the effect of design. Nor will it elude the 
principle of this rule, to suppose the same person to have 
been the author of all the letters, or even the author 
both of the letters and the history ; for no less design is 
necessary to produce coincidence between different parts of 
a man's own writings, especially when they are made to 
take the different forms of a history and of original letters, 
than to adjust them to the circumstances found in any 
other writing. 

With respect to those writings of the New Testament 
which are to be the subject of our present consideration, 
I think that, as to the authenticity of the epistles, this 
argument, where it is sufficiently sustained by instances, 
is nearly conclusive ; for I cannot assign a supposition of 
forgery, in which coincidences of the kind we inquire after 
are likely to appear. As to the history, it extends to 
these points : — It proves the general reality of the cir- 
cumstances ; it proves the historian's knowledge of these 
circumstances. In the present instance it confirms his 
pretensions of having been a cotemporary, and in the latter 
part of his history a companion, of St. Paul. In a word, 
it establishes the substantial truth of the narration : and 
substantial truth is that which, in every historical inquiry, 
ought to be the first thing sought after and ascertained ; 
it must be the groundwork of every other observation. 

The reader then will please to remember this word un- 
designedness, as denoting that upon which the construction 
and validity of our argument chiefly depend. 

As to the proofs of undesignedness, I shall in this place 
say little ; for I had rather the reader's persuasion should 
arise from the instances themselves, and the separate re- 
marks with which they may be accompanied, than from 
any previous formulary or description of argument. In a 
great plurality of examples, I trust he will be perfectly 
convinced that no design or contrivance whatever has been 
exercised : and if some of the coincidences alleged appear 
to be minute, circuitous, or oblique, let him reflect that 



EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 5 

this very indirectness and subtility is that which gives 
force and propriety to the example. Broad, obvious, and 
explicit agreements prove little ; because it may be sug- 
gested that the insertion of such is the ordinary expedient 
of every forgery : and though they may occur, and pro- 
bably will occur, in genuine writings, yet it cannot be 
proved that they are peculiar to these. Thus what St. Paul 
declares in chap xi. of 1 Cor. £vv. 23. . .]] concerning the 
institution of the eucharist — " For I have received of 
" the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the 
" Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, 
" took bread ; and when he had given thanks, he brake 
" it, and said, Take, eat ; this is my body, which is 
" broken for you ; this do in remembrance of me " — 
though it be in close and verbal conformity with the ac- 
count of the same transaction preserved by St. Luke [xxii. 
15. . 20.], is yet a conformity of which no use can be 
made in our argument ; for if it should be objected that 
this was a mere recital from the gospel, borrowed by the 
author of the epistle, for the purpose of setting off his 
composition by an appearance of agreement with the re- 
ceived account of the Lord's supper, I should not know 
how to repel the insinuation. In like manner, the de- 
scription which St. Paul gives of himself, in his epistle to 
the Philippians (hi. 5.) — " Circumcised the eighth day, 
" of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an 
" Hebrew of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a 
" Pharisee ; concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; 
" touching the righteousness which is in the law, blame- 
" less" — is made up of particulars so plainly delivered 
concerning him, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle 
to the Romans, and the Epistle to the Galatians, that I 
cannot deny but that it would be easy for an impostor, 
who w r as fabricating a letter in the name of St. Paul, to 
collect these articles into one view. This, therefore, is a 
conformity which we do not adduce. But when I read, 
in the Acts of the Apostles [xvi. 1.], that " when Paul 
" came to Derbe and Lystra, behold a certain disciple was 
" there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman 
" which was a Jewess ;" and when, in an epistle addressed 

b 3 



6 HORJE PAULINJE. 

to Timothy [2 Tim. iii. 15. ~], I find him reminded of his 
" having known the holy scriptures from a child" which 
implies that he must, on one side or both, have been 
brought up by Jewish parents ; 1 conceive that I remark 
a coincidence which shows, by its very obliquity, that 
scheme was not employed in its formation. In like 
manner, if a coincidence depend upon a comparison of 
dates, or rather of circumstances from which the dates are 
gathered — the more intricate that comparison shall be ; 
the more numerous the intermediate steps through which 
the conclusion is deduced ; in a word, the more circuitous 
the investigation is, the better, because the agreement 
which finally results is thereby farther removed from the 
suspicion of contrivance, affectation, or design. And it 
should be remembered, concerning these coincidences, that 
it is one thing to be minute, and another to be precarious; 
one thing to be unobserved, and another to be obscure ; 
one thing to be circuitous or oblique, and another to be 
forced, dubious, or fanciful. And this distinction ought 
always to be retained in our thoughts. 

The very particularity of St. Paul's epistles ; the per- 
petual recurrence of names of persons and places ; the 
frequent allusions to the incidents of his private life, and 
the circumstances of his condition and history ; and the 
connection and parallelism of these with the same cir- 
cumstances in the Acts of the Apostles, so as to enable 
us, for the most part, to confront them with one another ; 
as well as the relation which subsists between the cir- 
cumstances, as mentioned or referred to in the different 
epistles — afford no inconsiderable proof of the genuineness 
of the writings, and the reality of the transactions. For 
as no advertency is sufficient to guard against slips and 
contradictions, when circumstances are multiplied, and 
when they are liable to be detected by cotemporary ac- 
counts equally circumstantial, an impostor, I should ex- 
pect, would either have avoided particulars entirely, con- 
tenting himself with doctrinal discussions, moral precepts, 
and general reflections * ; or if, for the sake of imitating 

* This, however, must not be misunderstood. A person writing 
to his friends, and upon a subject in which the transactions of his 



EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 7 

St. Paul's style, he should have thought it necessary to 
intersperse his composition with names and circumstances, 
he would have placed them out of the reach of com- 
parison with the history. And I am confirmed in this 
opinion by an inspection of two attempts to counterfeit 
St. Paul's epistles, which have come down to us ; and the 
only attempts, of which we have any knowledge, that are 
at all deserving of regard. One of these is an epistle to 
the Laodiceans, extant in Latin, and preserved by Fabricius 
in his collection of apocryphal scriptures. The other pur- 
ports to be an epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, in 
answer to an epistle from the Corinthians to him. This 
was translated by Scroderus from a copy in the Armenian 
language which had been sent to W. Whiston, and was 
afterwards, from a more perfect copy procured at Aleppo, 
published by his sons, as an appendix to their edition of 
Moses Chorenensis. No Greek copy exists of either : 
they are not only not supported by ancient testimony, but 
they are negatived and excluded ; as they have never 
found admission into any catalogue of apostolical writings, 
acknowledged by, or known to, the early ages of Chris- 
tianity. In the first of these I found, as I expected, a 
total evitation of circumstances. It is simply a collection 
of sentences from the canonical epistles, strung together 
with very little skill. The second, which is a more versute 
and specious forgery, is introduced with a list of names of 
persons who wrote to St. Paul from Corinth ; and is 
preceded by an account sufficiently particular of the manner 
in which the epistle was sent from Corinth to St. Paul, 



own life were concerned, would probably be led in the course of 
his letter, especially if it was a long one, to refer to passages found 
in his history. A person addressing an epistle to the public at 
large, or under the form of an epistle delivering a discourse upon 
some speculative argument, would not, it is probable, meet with an 
occasion of alluding to the circumstances of his life at all : he 
might, or he might not ; the chance on either side is nearly equal. 
This is the situation of the catholic epistles. Although, therefore, 
the presence of these allusions and agreements be a valuable ac- 
cession to the arguments by which the authenticity of a letter is 
maintained, yet the want of them certainly forms no positive ob- 
jection. 

B 4 



8 HOR^ PAULINiE. 

and the answer returned. But they are names which no 
one ever heard of; and the account it is impossible to 
combine with any thing found in the Acts, or in the other 
epistles. It is not necessary for me to point out the in- 
ternal marks of spuriousness and imposture which these 
compositions betray ; but it was necessary to observe, that 
they do not afford those coincidences which we propose as 
proofs of authenticity in the epistles which we defend. 

Having explained the general scheme and formation of 
the argument, I may be permitted to subjoin a brief ac- 
count of the manner of conducting it. 

I have disposed the several instances of agreement under 
separate numbers ; as well to mark more sensibly the 
divisions of the subject, as for another purpose, viz. that 
the reader may thereby be reminded that the instances are 
independent of one another. I have advanced nothing 
which I did not think probable ; but the degree of pro- 
bability, by which different instances are supported, is un- 
doubtedly very different. If the reader, therefore, meets 
with a number which contains an instance that appears to 
him unsatisfactory, or founded in mistake, he will dismiss 
that number from the argument, but without prejudice to 
any other. He will have occasion also to observe, that 
the coincidences discoverable in some epistles are much 
fewer and weaker than what are supplied by others. But 
he will add to his observation this important circumstance 
— that whatever ascertains the original of one epistle, in 
some measure establishes the authority of the rest. For, 
whether these epistles be genuine or spurious, every thing 
about them indicates that they come from the same hand. 
The diction, which it is extremely difficult to imitate, pre- 
serves its resemblance and peculiarity throughout all the 
epistles. Numerous expressions and singularities of style, 
found in no other part of the New Testament, are re- 
peated in different epistles ; and occur, in their respective 
places, without the smallest appearance of force or art. 
An involved argumentation, frequent obscurities, espe- 
cially in the order and transition of thought, piety, vehe- 
mence, affection, bursts of rapture, and of unparalleled 
sublimity, are properties, all or most of them, discernible 



EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 9 

in every letter of the collection. But although these 
epistles bear strong marks of proceeding from the same 
hand, I think it is still more certain that they were ori- 
ginally separate publications. They form no continued 
story ; they compose no regular correspondence ; they 
comprise not the transactions of any particular period ; 
they carry on no connection of argument ; they depend 
not upon one another ; except in one or two instances, 
they refer not to one another. I will farther undertake to 
say, that no study or care has been employed to produce 
or preserve an appearance of consistency amongst them. 
All which observations show that they were not intended 
by the person, whoever he was, that wrote them, to come 
forth or be read together ; that they appeared at first 
separately, and have been collected since. 

The proper purpose of the following work is, to bring 
together, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from the 
different epistles, such passages as furnish examples of 
undesigned coincidence ; but I have so far enlarged upon 
this plan, as to take into it some circumstances found in 
the epistles, which contributed strength to the conclusion, 
though not strictly objects of comparison. 

It appeared also a part of the same plan, to examine 
the difficulties which presented themselves in the course of 
our enquiry. 

I do not know that the subject has been proposed or 
considered in this view before. Ludovicus Cappellus, 
Bishop Pearson, Dr. Benson, and Dr. Lardner, have each 
given a continued history of St. Paul's life, made up from 
the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles joined together.* 

* [Historia Apostolica illustrata ex Actis Apostolorum et 
Epistolis Paulinis, &c. studio Lud. Cappelli. SALMURII. 
M.DC.LXXXII. The dedication, to the celebrated John Daille, 
bears date 1633. 

Johannis Pearsonii Opera Posthuma Chronologica. De Serie et 
Successione primorum Romae Episcoporum, &c. ; quibus praefigun- 
tur Annales Paulini, &c. Londini. 1688. 

The references in this work to that of Lud. Cappellus are made 
according to the paging of the edition in 1682. 

The History of the first planting of the Christian religion, taken 
from the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles, &c. &c. By 



10 HOR JE PAULINA. 

But this, it is manifest, is a different undertaking from the 
present, and directed to a different purpose. 

If what is here offered shall add one thread to that 
complication of probabilities by which the Christian history 
is attested, the reader's attention will be repaid by the 
supreme importance of the subject ; and my design will 
be fully answered. 



CHAP. II. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

No. I. 

The first passage I shall produce from this epistle, and 
upon which a good deal of observation will be founded, is 
the following : 

" But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the 
" saints ; for it hath pleased them of Macedonia and 
" Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor 
" saints which are at Jerusalem." Rom. xv. 25, 26. 

In this quotation three distinct circumstances are stated 
— a contribution in Macedonia for the relief of the 
Christians of Jerusalem, a contribution in Achaia for the 
same purpose, and an intended journey of St. Paul to 
Jerusalem. These circumstances are stated as taking 
place at the same time, and that to be the time when the 
epistle was written. Now let us enquire whether we can 
find these circumstances elsewhere ; and whether, if we 
do find them, they meet together in respect of date. Turn 
to the Acts of the Apostles, xx. 2, 3, and you read the 



George Benson, D.D., 2d edit. 3 vol. 4to (generally bound in one), 
1756. 

A History of the Apostles and Evangelists, Writers of the New 
Testament, in 3 vols. By Nathaniel Lardner, D.D. London, 
1760.] 



No. I. ROM. xv. 25, 26. 11 

following account : " When he had gone over those parts 
" (viz. Macedonia), and had given them much exhort- 
" ation, he came into Greece, and there abode three 
" months ; and when the Jews laid wait for him, as he 
" was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return 
" through Macedonia." From this passage, compared 
with the account of St. Paul's travels given before, and 
from the sequel of the chapter, it appears, that upon 
St. Paul's second visit to the peninsula of Greece, his in- 
tention was, when he should leave the country, to proceed 
from Achaia directly by sea to Syria ; but that, to avoid 
the Jews, who were lying in wait to intercept him in his 
route, he so far changed his purpose as to go back through 
Macedonia, embark at Philippi, and pursue his voyage 
from thence towards Jerusalem. Here therefore is a 
journey to Jerusalem ; but not a syllable of any con- 
tribution. And as St. Paul had taken several journeys to 
Jerusalem before, and one also immediately after his first 
visit into the peninsula of Greece (Acts, xviii. 21.), it 
cannot from hence be collected in which of these visits the 
epistle was written, or, with certainty, that it was written 
in either. The silence of the historian, who professes to 
have been with St. Paul at the time (xx. 6.), concerning 
any contribution, might lead us to look out for some dif- 
ferent journey, or might induce us perhaps to question the 
consistency of the two records, did not a very accidental 
reference, in another part of the same history, afford us 
sufficient ground to believe that this silence was omission. 
When St. Paul made his reply before Felix, to the accu- 
sations of Tertullus, he alleged, as was natural, that 
neither the errand which brought him to Jerusalem, nor 
his conduct whilst he remained there, merited the ca- 
lumnies with which the Jews had aspersed him. " Now 
" after many years (i. e. of absence) I came to bring 
" alms to my nation and offerings ; whereupon certain 
'•' Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither 
" with multitude nor with tumult, who ought to have 
" been here before thee, and object, if they had ought 
" against me." Acts, xxiv. 17 — 19. This mention of 
alms and offerings certainly brings the narrative in the 



12 UORM PAULINA. 

Acts nearer to an accordancy with the epistle ; yet no 
one, I am persuaded, will suspect that this clause was put 
into St. Paul's defence, either to supply the omission in 
the preceding narrative, or with any view to such ac- 
cordancy. 

After all, nothing is yet said or hinted concerning the 
place of the contribution ; nothing concerning Macedonia 
and Achaia. Turn therefore to the First Epistle to the 
Corinthians, xvi. 1 — 4, and you have St. Paul delivering 
the following directions : " Concerning the collection for 
" the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Ga- 
" latia, even so do ye : upon the first day of the week let 
" every one of you lay by him in store as God hath pros- 
" pered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. 
" And when I come, whomsoever you shall approve by 
" your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality 
" unto Jerusalem ; and if it be meet that I go also, they 
" shall go with me." In this passage we find a con- 
tribution carrying on at Corinth, the capital of Achaia, 
for the Christians of Jerusalem ; we find also a hint given 
of the possibility of St. Paul going up to Jerusalem him- 
self, after he had paid his visit into Achaia : but this is 
spoken of rather as a possibility than as any settled inten- 
tion ; for his first thought was, " Whomsoever you shall 
" approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your 
"liberality to Jerusalem:" and, in the sixth verse, he 
adds, " That ye may bring me on my journey whither- 
" soever I go." This epistle purports to be written after 
St. Paul had been at Corinth ; for it refers throughout to 
what he had done and said amongst them whilst he was 
there. The expression, therefore, " when I come," must 
relate to a second visit ; against which visit the con- 
tribution spoken of was desired to be in readiness. 

But though the contribution in Achaia be expressly 
mentioned, nothing is here said concerning any contribu- 
tion in Macedonia. Turn therefore, in the third place, to 
the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, viii. 1 — 4, and 
you will discover the particular which remains to be sought 
for : " Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace 
" of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia ; how 



No. I. ROM. xv. 25, 26. 13 

" that, in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their 
" joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of 
" their liberality ; for to their power I bear record, yea, 
" and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves ; 
" praying us, with much entreaty, that we would receive 
" the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the mini- 
" stering to the saints." To which add, ix. % : "I know 
" the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you 
" to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year 
" ago." In this epistle we find St. Paul advanced as far 
as Macedonia, upon that second visit to Corinth which he 
promised in his former epistle ; we find also, in the 
passages now quoted from it, that a contribution was 
going on in Macedonia at the same time with, or soon 
however following, the contribution which was made in 
Achaia ; but for whom the contribution was made does 
not appear in this epistle at all : that information must be 
supplied from the first epistle. 

Here therefore, at length, but fetched from three dif- 
ferent writings, we have obtained the several circum- 
stances we enquired after ; and which the Epistle to the 
Romans brings together, viz., a contribution in Achaia 
for the Christians of Jerusalem ; a contribution in Mace- 
donia for the same ) and an approaching journey of St. 
Paul to Jerusalem. We have these circumstances — 
each by some hint in the passage in which it is mentioned, 
or by the date of the writing in which the passage occurs 
— fixed to a particular time ; and we have that time 
turning out, upon examination, to be in all the same ; 
namely, towards the close of St. Paul's second visit to the 
peninsula of Greece. This is an instance of conformity 
beyond the possibility, I will venture to say, of random 
writing to produce. I also assert, that it is in the highest 
degree improbable that it should have been the effect of 
contrivance and design. The imputation of design amounts 
to this, that the forger of the Epistle to the Romans in- 
serted in it the passage upon which our observations are 
founded, for the purpose of giving colour to his forgery 
by the appearance of conformity with other writings which 
were then extant. I reply, in the first place, that, if he 



14 HORJE PAULINA. 

did this to countenance his forgery, he did it for the pur- 
pose of an argument which would not strike one reader 
in ten thousand. Coincidences so circuitous as this an- 
swer not the ends of forgery ; are seldom, I believe, at- 
tempted by it, In the second place I observe, that he 
must have had the Acts of the Apostles, and the two 
Epistles to the Corinthians, before him at the time. In 
the Acts of the Apostles (I mean that part of the Acts 
[xx. 2, 3.] which relates to this period) he would have 
found the journey to Jerusalem ; but nothing about the 
contribution. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians 
[xvi. 1 . . 4.] he would have found a contribution going 
on in Achaia for the Christians of Jerusalem, and a dis- 
tant hint of the possibility of the journey ; but nothing 
concerning a contribution in Macedonia. In the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians [viii. 1 . . 4. ix. °2.~] he would 
have found a contribution in Macedonia accompanying that 
in Achaia ; but no intimation for whom either was in- 
tended, and not a word about the journey. It was only 
by a close and attentive collation of the three writings, 
that he could have picked out the circumstances which he 
has united in his epistle ; and by a still more nice ex- 
amination, that he could have determined them to belong 
to the same period. In the third place, I remark what 
diminishes very much the suspicion of fraud, how aptly 
and connectedly the mention of the circumstances in ques- 
tion, viz., the journey to Jerusalem, and of the occasion 
of that journey, arises from the context [Rom. xv. 24 ... ]. 
" Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come 
" to you ; for I trust to see you in my journey, and to 
" be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be 
" somewhat filled with your company. But now I go 
" unto Jerusalem, to minister unto the saints ; for it 
" hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make 
" a certain contribution for the poor saints which are 
" at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily, and 
" their debtors they are ; for if the Gentiles have been 
" made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is 
" also to minister unto them in carnal things. When 
" therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to 



No. II. ROM. xvi. 21 . . 23. 15 



c< 



them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain/' Is 
the passage in Italics like a passage foisted in for an ex- 
traneous purpose ? Does it not arise from what goes 
before, by a junction as easy as any example of writing 
upon real business can furnish ? Could any thing be 
more natural than that St. Paul, in writing to the Romans, 
should speak of the time when he hoped to visit them ; 
should mention the business which then detained him ; 
and that he purposed to set forwards upon his journey to 
them, when that business was completed ? 



No. II. 

By means of the quotation which formed the subject of 
the preceding number, we collect, that the Epistle to the 
Romans was written at the conclusion of St. Paul's second 
visit to the peninsula of Greece : but this we collect, not 
from the epistle itself, not from any thing declaimed con- 
cerning the time and place in any part of the epistle, but 
from a comparison of circumstances referred to in the 
epistle, with the order of events recorded in the Acts, 
and with references to the same circumstances, though for 
quite different purposes, in the two Epistles to the Corin- 
thians. Now would the author of a forgery, who sought 
to gain credit to a spurious letter by congruities, de- 
pending upon the time and place in which the letter was 
supposed to be written, have left that time and place to be 
made out, in a manner so obscure and indirect as this is ? 
If, therefore, coincidences of circumstances can be pointed 
out in this epistle, depending upon its date, or the place 
where it was written, whilst that date and place are only 
ascertained by other circumstances, such coincidences may 
fairly be stated as undesigned. Under this head I ad- 
duce 

(i.) Chap. xvi. 21 — 23. " Timotheus, my work- 
" fellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kins- 
" men, salute you. I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, 
" salute you in the Lord. Gaius mine host, and of the 
" whole church, saluteth you ; and Quartus, a brother." 



16 HORiE PAULINA. 

With this passage I compare Acts, xx. 4. " And there 
" accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea ; and of 
" the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus ; and 
" Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus ; and, of Asia, Tychicus 
and Trophimus." The Epistle to the Romans, we have 
seen, was written just before St. Paul's departure from 
Greece, after his second visit to that peninsula : the per- 
sons mentioned in the quotation from the Acts are those 
who accompanied him in that very departure. Of seven 
whose names are joined in the salutation of the church of 
Rome, three, viz., Sosipater, Gaius, and Timothy are 
proved, by this passage in the Acts, to have been with St. 
Paul at the time. And this is, perhaps, as much coinci- 
dence as could be expected from reality, though less, I am 
apt to think, than would have been produced by design, 
Four are mentioned in the Acts who are not joined in the 
salutation ; and it is in the nature of the case probable that 
there should be many attending St. Paul in Greece who 
knew nothing of the converts at Rome, nor were known 
by them. In like manner several are joined in the salu- 
tation who are not mentioned in the passage referred to in 
the Acts. This also was to be expected. The occasion of 
mentioning them in the Acts was their proceeding with 
St. Paul upon his journey. But we may be sure that 
there were many eminent Christians with St. Paul in 
Greece, besides those who accompanied him into Asia.* 



* Of these Jason is one, whose presence upon this occasion is 
very naturally accounted for. Jason was an inhabitant of Thessa- 
lonica in Macedonia, and entertained St. Paul in his house upon 

his first visit to that country. Acts, xvii. 7 St. Paul, upon this 

his second visit, passed through Macedonia on his way to Greece, 
and, from the situation of Thessalonica, most likely through that 
city. It appears, from various instances in the Acts, to have been 
the practice of many converts to attend St. Paul from place to 
place. It is, therefore, highly probable, — I mean that it is highly 
consistent with the account in the history, that Jason, according to 
that account a zealous disciple, the inhabitant of a city at no great 
distance from Greece, and through which, as it should seem, St. 
Paul had lately passed, should have accompanied St. Paul into 
Greece, and have been with him there at this time, 

Lucius is another name in the epistle. A very slight alteration 
would convert Aovicioq into AowcSs, Lucius into Luke, which would 



No. II. ROM. xvi. 3. 17 

But if any one shall still contend that a forger of the 
epistle, with the Acts of the Apostles before him, and 
having settled his scheme of writing a letter as from St. 
Paul upon his second visit into Greece, would easily think 
of the expedient of putting in the names of those persons 
who appeared to be with St. Paul at the time, as an 
obvious recommendation of the imposture ; I then repeat 
my observations : first, that he would have made the 
catalogue more complete ; and, secondly, that with this 
contrivance in his thoughts, it was certainly his business, 
in order to avail himself of the artifice, to have stated in 
the body of the epistle that St. Paul was in Greece when 
he wrote it, and that he was there upon his second visit. 
Neither of which he has done, either directly, or even so 
as to be discoverable by any circumstance found in the 
narrative delivered in the Acts. 

(ii.) Under the same head, viz. of coincidences de- 
pending upon date, I cite from the epistle the following 
salutation : " Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in 
" Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own 
" necks ; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all 
"the churches of the Gentiles;" xvi. 3. — It appears, 
from the Acts of the Apostles, that Priscilla and Aquila 
had originally been inhabitants of Rome ; for we read, 
Acts, xviii. 2, that " Paul found a certain Jew, named 
" Aquila, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, 
" because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to de- 
" part from Rome" They were connected therefore with 
the place to which the salutations are sent. That is one 
coincidence ; another is the following : St. Paul became 
acquainted with these persons at Corinth during his first 
visit into Greece. They accompanied him upon his return 
into Asia ; were settled for some time at Ephesus, Acts, 



produce an additional coincidence : for, if Luke was the author of 
the history, he was with St. Paul at this time ; inasmuch as, de- 
scribing the voyage which took place soon after the writing of this 
epistle, the historian uses the first person — i( We sailed away 
from Philippi." Acts, xx. 6. [A more probable account of the 
situation of Luke at this time is proposed on Acts, xx. 4.] 

C 



18 HOR^E PAULINiE. 

xviii. 19 — 26 ; and appear to have been with St. Paul when 
he wrote from that place his First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, 1 Cor. xvi. 19. Not long after the writing of which 
epistle St. Paul went from Ephesus into Macedonia, and 
" after he had gone over those parts" [[Acts, xx. 2.], pro- 
ceeded from thence upon his second visit into Greece ; 
during which visit, or rather at the conclusion of it, the 
Epistle to the Romans, as hath been shown, was written. 
We have therefore the time of St. Paul's residence at 
Ephesus after he had written to the Corinthians, the time 
taken up by his progress through Macedonia (which is 
indefinite, and was probably considerable), and his three 
months' abode in Greece ; we have the sum of these three 
periods allowed for Aquila and Priscilla going back to 
Rome, so as to be there when the epistle before us was 
written. Now what this quotation leads us to observe is, 
the danger of scattering names and circumstances in 
writings like the present, how implicated they often are 
with dates and places, and that nothing but truth can pre- 
serve consistency. Had the notes of time in the Epistle 
to the Romans fixed the writing of it to any date prior to 
St. Paul's first residence at Corinth, the salutation of 
Aquila and Priscilla would have contradicted the history, 
because it would have been prior to his acquaintance with 
these persons. If the notes of time had fixed it to any 
period during that residence at Corinth, during his 
journey to Jerusalem when he first returned out of Greece, 
during his stay at Antioch whither he went down from 
Jerusalem, or during his second progress through the 
Lesser Asia upon which he proceeded from Antioch, an 
equal contradiction would have been incurred ; because 
from Acts, xviii. 2 — 18, 19 — 26, it appears that during 
all this time Aquila and Priscilla were either along with 
St. Paul, or were abiding at Ephesus. Lastly, had the 
notes of time in this epistle, which we have seen to be 
perfectly incidental, compared with the notes of time in 
the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which are equally 
incidental, fixed this epistle to be either cotemporary with 
that, or prior to it, a similar contradiction would have 
ensued ; because, first, when the Epistle to the Corin- 



No. II. ROM. xvi. 3. 19 

thians was written, Aquila and Priscilla were along with 
St. Paul, as they joined in the salutation of that church, 
1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; and because, secondly, the history does not 
allow us to suppose, that between the time of their be- 
coming acquainted with St. Paul, and the time of St. 
Paul's writing to the Corinthians, Aquila and Priscilla 
could have gone to Rome, so as to have been saluted in an 
epistle to that city, and then come back to St. Paul at 
Ephesus, so as to be joined with him in saluting the 
church of Corinth. As it is, all things are consistent. 
The Epistle to the Romans is posterior even to the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians ; because it speaks of a con- 
tribution in Achaia being completed, which the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians, chap, viii., is only soliciting', 
It is sufficiently therefore posterior to the First Epistle to 
the Corinthians, to allow time in the interval for Aquila 
and Priscilla's return from Ephesus to Rome. 

Before we dismiss these two persons, we may take 
notice of the terms of commendation in which St. Paul 
describes them, and of the agreement of that encomium 
with the history. " My helpers in Christ Jesus, who 
" have for my life laid down their necks ; unto whom not 
" only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the 
" Gentiles." In the eighteenth chapter of the Acts, we 
are informed that Aquila and Priscilla were Jews ; that 
St. Paul first met with them at Corinth ; that for some 
time he abode in the same house with them ; that St. 
Paul's contention at Corinth was with the unbelieving 
Jews, who at first " opposed and blasphemed, and after- 
" wards with one accord raised an insurrection against 
" him ;" that Aquila and Priscilla adhered, we may con- 
clude, to St. Paul throughout this whole contest ; for, 
when he left the city, they went with him, Acts, xviii. 1 8. 
Under these circumstances, it is highly probable that they 
should be involved in the dangers and persecutions which 
St. Paul underwent from the Jews, being themselves 
Jews ; and, by adhering to St. Paul in this dispute, 
deserters, as they would be accounted, of the Jewish cause. 
Farther, as they, though Jews, were assisting to St. Paul 
in preaching to the Gentiles at Corinth, they had taken a 

c °2 



20 HORJE PAULINA. 

decided part in the great controversy of that day, the ad- 
mission of the Gentiles to a parity of religious situation 
with the Jews. For this conduct alone, if there was no 
other reason, they may seem to have been entitled to 
" thanks from the churches of the Gentiles." They were 
Jews taking part with Gentiles. Yet is all this so 
indirectly intimated, or rather so much of it left to in- 
ference in the account given in the Acts, that I do not 
think it probable that a forger either could or would have 
drawn his representation from thence ; and still less pro- 
bable do I think it, that, without having seen the Acts, he 
could by mere accident, and without truth for his guide, 
have delivered a representation so conformable to the cir- 
cumstances there recorded. 

The two congruities last adduced depended upon the 
time, the two following regard the place, of the epistle. 

1. Chap. xvi. 23. " Erastus, the chamberlain of the 
"city, saluteth you" — of what city? We have seen, 
that is, we have inferred from circumstances found in the 
epistle compared with circumstances found in the Acts 
of the Apostles, and in the two Epistles to the Co- 
rinthians, that our epistle was written during St. Paul's 
second visit to the peninsula of Greece. Again, as St. 
Paul, in his epistle to the church of Corinth, 1 Cor. xvi. 3, 
speaks of a collection going on in that city, and of his 
desire that it might be ready against he came thither ; 
and as in this epistle he speaks of that collection being 
ready, it follows that the epistle was written either whilst 
he was at Corinth, or after he had been there. Thirdly, 
since St. Paul speaks in this epistle [xv. Q5.~\ of his 
journey to Jerusalem, as about instantly to take place, and 
as we learn, Acts, xx. 3, that his design and attempt was to 
sail upon that journey immediately from Greece, properly 
so called, L e, as distinguished from Macedonia, it is pro- 
bable that he was in this country when he wrote the 
epistle, in which he speaks of himself as upon the eve of 
setting out. If in Greece, he was most likely at Corinth, 
for the two Epistles to the Corinthians show that the 
principal end of his coming into Greece was to visit that 
city, where he had founded a church. Certainly we know 



No. II. ROM. xvi. 23. 1—3. 21 

no place in Greece in which his presence was so probable : 
at least, the placing of him at Corinth satisfies every cir- 
cumstance. Now that Erastus was an inhabitant of 
Corinth, or had some connection with Corinth, is ren- 
dered a fair subject of presumption, by that which is 
accidentally said of him in the Second Epistle to Timothy, 
iii. 20, " Erastus abode at Corinth" St. Paul com- 
plains of his solitude, and is telling Timothy what was 
become of his companions : " Erastus abode at Corinth ; 
" but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." Erastus 
was one of those who had attended St. Paul in his travels, 
Acts, xix. 22 ; and when those travels had, upon some 
occasion, brought our apostle and his train to Corinth, 
Erastus stayed there, for no reason so probable as that it 
was his home. I allow that this coincidence is not so 
precise as some others, yet I think it too clear to be pro- 
duced by accident ; for, of the many places which this 
same epistle has assigned to different persons, and the 
innumerable others which it might have mentioned, how 
came it to fix upon Corinth for Erastus ? And as far as 
it is a coincidence, it is certainly undesigned on the part 
of the author of the Epistle to the Romans : because he 
has not told us of what city Erastus was the chamberlain ; 
or, which is the same thing, from what city the epistle was 
written, the setting forth of which was absolutely neces- 
sary to the display of the coincidence, if any such display 
had been thought of : nor could the author of the Epistle 
to Timothy leave Erastus at Corinth, from any thing he 
might have read in the Epistle to the Romans, because 
Corinth is no where in that Epistle mentioned either by 
name or descripinto. 

2. Chap. xvi. 1 — 3. " I commend unto you Phoebe, 
" our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at 
" Cenchrea, that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh 
" saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she 
" hath need of you ; for she hath been a succourer of 
" many, and of myself also." Cenchrea adjoined to Co- 
rinth ; St. Paul, therefore, at the time of writing the 
letter, was in the neighbourhood of the woman whom he 
thus recommends. But, farther, that St. Paul had before 

c 3 



22 UORM PAULINA. 

this been at Cenchrea itself, appears from the eighteenth 
chapter of the Acts ; and appears by a circumstance as 
incidental, and as unlike design, as any that can be ima- 
gined. " Paul after this tarried there (viz. at Corinth) 
" yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, 
"and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and 
" Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had 
" a vow ;" xviii. 18. The shaving of the head denoted 
the expiration of the Nazaritic vow. The historian, there- 
fore, by the mention of this circumstance, virtually tells 
us that St. Paul's vow was expired before he set forward 
upon his voyage, having deferred, probably, his departure 
until he should be released from the restrictions under 
which his vow laid him. Shall we say that the author of 
the Acts of the Apostles feigned this anecdote of St. Paul 
at Cenchrea, because he had read in the Epistle to the 
Romans, that " Phoebe, a servant of the church of 
" Cenchrea, had been a succourer of many, and of him 
" also ?" or shall we say that the author of the Epistle to 
the Romans, out of his own imagination, created Phoebe 
" a servant of the church at Cenchrea" because he read 
in the Acts of the Apostles that Paul had " shorn his 
head " in that place ? 



No. III. 

Chap. i. 13. " Now, T would not have you ignorant, 
" brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, 
" but was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among 
" you also, even as among other Gentiles." Again, xv. 
23, 24 : " But now, having no more place in these parts, 
" and having a great desire these many years (7roXXa, 
" oftentimes) to come unto you, whensoever I take my 
" journey into Spain, I will come to you ; for I trust to 
" see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way 
" thitherward by you : but now I go up unto Jerusalem, 
" to minister to the saints. When, therefore, I have 
" performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I 
" will come by you into Spain." 



No. III. ROM. i. 13. xv. 23, 24. 23 

With these passages compare Acts, xix. 21. " After 
" these things were ended (viz. at Ephesus), Paul pur- 
" posed in the spirit, when he had passed through Mace- 
" donia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem ; saying, After I 
" have been there, I must also see Rome." 

Let it be observed, that our epistle purports to have 
been written at the conclusion of St. Paul's second journey 
into Greece ; that the quotation from the Acts contains 
words said to have been spoken by St. Paul at Ephesus, 
some time before he set forwards upon that journey. 
Now, I contend that it is impossible that two independent 
fictions should have attributed to St. Paul the same pur- 
pose, especially a purpose so specific and particular as 
this, which was not merely a general design of visiting 
Rome, but a design of visiting Rome after he had passed 
through Macedonia and Achaia, and after he had per- 
formed a voyage from these countries to Jerusalem. The 
conformity between the history and the epistle is perfect. 
In the first quotation from the epistle, we find that a 
design of visiting Rome had long dwelt in the apostle's 
mind : in the quotation from the Acts, we find that de- 
sign expressed a considerable time before the epistle was 
written. In the history, we find that the plan which St. 
Paul had formed, was to pass through Macedonia and 
Achaia ; after that, to go to Jerusalem ; and, when he 
had finished his visit there, to sail for Rome. When the 
epistle was written, he had executed so much of his plan, 
as to have passed through Macedonia and Achaia ; and 
was preparing to pursue the remainder of it, by speedily 
setting out towards Jerusalem : and in this point of his 
travels he tells his friends at Rome, that, when he had 
completed the business which carried him to Jerusalem, 
he would come to them. 

Secondly, I say that the very inspection of the passages 
will satisfy us that they were not made up from one another. 

" Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will 
" come to you ; for I trust to see you in my journey, and 
4 £ to be brought on my way thitherward by you : but now 
" I go up to Jerusalem, to minister to the saints. When, 
" therefore, I have performed this, and have sealed to 

c 4 



24 HOR^E PAULINA. 

" them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain." — This 
from the epistle. 

i6 Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed 
" through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem ; 
" saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome." 
— This from the Acts. 

If the passage in the epistle was taken from that in the 
Acts, why was Spain put in ? If the passage in the Acts 
was taken from that in the epistle, why was Spain left 
out ? If the two passages were unknown to each other, 
nothing can account for their conformity but truth. Whe- 
ther we suppose the history and the epistle to be alike 
fictitious, or the history to be true but the letter spurious, 
or the letter to be genuine but the history a fable, the 
meeting with this circumstance in both, if neither bor- 
rowed it from the other, is, upon all these suppositions, 
equally inexplicable. 



No. IV. 

The following quotation I offer for the purpose of point- 
ing out a geographical coincidence, of so much import- 
ance, that Dr. Lardner considered it as a confirmation of 
the whole history of St. Paul's travels. 

Chap. xv. 19. "So that from Jerusalem, and round 
" about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel 
" of Christ." 

I do not think that these words necessarily import that 
St. Paul had penetrated into Illyricum, or preached the 
gospel in that province ; but rather that he had come to 
the confines of Illyricum {p«kyjpi rou TXAupjxou), and that 
these confines were the external boundary of his travels. 
St. Paul considers Jerusalem as the centre, and is here 
viewing the circumference to which his travels had ex- 
tended. The form of expression in the original conveys this 
idea — a7ro Tspoua-otAv)^ xcu, xux'Kid p*£%pi rou TAAupjxot). 
Illyricum was the part of this circle which he mentions in 
an Epistle to the Romans, because it lay in a direction from 
Jerusalem towards that city, and pointed out to the Roman 



No. IV. ROM. xv. 19. 25 

readers the nearest place to them, to which his travels 
from Jerusalem had brought him. The name of Ulyricum 
nowhere occurs in the Acts of the Apostles ; no suspicion, 
therefore, can be conceived that the mention of it was 
borrowed from thence. Yet I think it appears, from these 
same Acts, that St. Paul, before the time when he wrote 
his Epistle to the Romans, had reached the confines of 
Ulyricum ; or, however, that he might have done so, in 
perfect consistency with the account there delivered. Uly- 
ricum adjoins upon Macedonia ; measuring from Jerusalem 
towards Rome, it lies close behind it. If, therefore, St. 
Paul traversed the whole country of Macedonia, the route 
would necessarily bring him to the confines of Ulyricum, 
and these confines would be described as the extremity of 
his journey. Now, the account of St. Paul's second visit 
to the peninsula of Greece, is contained in these words : 
" He departed for to go into Macedonia ; and when he 
" had gone over those parts, and had given them much 
" exhortation, he came into Greece." Acts, xx. 2. This 
account allows, or rather leads us to suppose, that St. 
Paul, in going over Macedonia (J>ieK$cov to. [xspr} exslvoi), 
had passed so far to the west, as to come into those parts 
of the country which were contiguous to Ulyricum, if he 
did not enter into Ulyricum itself. The history, therefore, 
and the epistle so far agree, and the agreement is much 
strengthened by a coincidence of time. At the time the 
epistle was written, St. Paul might say, in conformity 
with the history, that he had " come unto Ulyricum :" 
much before that time, he could not have said so ; for, 
upon his former journey to Macedonia, his route is laid 
down from the time of his landing at Philippi to his 
sailing from Corinth. We trace him from Philippi to 
Amphipolis and Apollonia ; from thence to Thessalonica ; 
from Thessalonica to Beraea ; from Bersea to Athens ; and 
from Athens to Corinth : which track confines him to the 
eastern side of the peninsula, and therefore keeps him all 
the while at a considerable distance from Ulyricum. Upon 
his second visit to Macedonia, the history, we have seen, 
leaves him at liberty. It must have been, therefore, upon 
that second visit, if at all, that he approached Ulyricum ; 



26 HORZE PAULINA. 

and this visit, we know, almost immediately preceded 
the writing of the epistle. It was natural that the apostle 
should refer to a journey which was fresh in his thoughts. 



No. V. 

Chap. xv. 30. " Now I beseech you, brethren, for 
" the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the 
" Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers 
" to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that 
" do not believe in Judaea." — With this compare Acts, xx. 
22, 23 : 

" And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto 
" Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me 
" there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, 
" saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." 

Let it be remarked that it is the same journey to Jeru- 
salem which is spoken of in these two passages ; that the 
epistle was written immediately before St. Paul set for- 
wards upon this journey from Achaia ; that the words in 
the Acts were uttered by him when he had proceeded in 
that journey as far as Miletus, in Lesser Asia. This being 
remembered, I observe that the two passages, without any 
resemblance between them that could induce us to suspect 
that they were borrowed from one another, represent the 
state of St. Paul's mind, with respect to the event of the 
journey, in terms of substantial agreement. They both 
express his sense of danger in the approaching visit to 
Jerusalem ; they both express the doubt which dwelt upon 
his thoughts concerning what might there befall him. 
When, in his epistle, he entreats the Roman Christians, 
" for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of 
" the Spirit, to strive together with him in their prayers 
" to God for him, that he might be delivered from them 
" which do not believe in Judsea," he sufficiently con- 
fesses his fears. In the Acts of the Apostles we see in 
him the same apprehensions, and the same uncertainty : 
" I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the 
" things that shall befall me there." The only difference 



No. VI. ROM. xv. 30, 27 

is, that in the history his thoughts are more inclined to 
despondency than in the epistle. In the epistle, he retains 
his hope " that he should come unto them with joy by 
" the will of God ;" in the history, his mind yields to the 
reflection, " that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city 
" that bonds and afflictions awaited him." Now that his 
fears should be greater, and his hopes less, in this stage 
of his journey than when he wrote his epistle, that is, 
when he first set out upon it, is no other alteration than 
might well be expected ; since those prophetic intimations 
to which he refers, when he says, " the Holy Ghost 
" witnesseth in every city," had probably been received by 
him in the course of his journey, and were probably 
similar to what we know he received in the remaining part 
of it at Tyre (xxi. 4.), and afterwards from Agabus at 
Csesarea (xxi. 11.). 



No. VI. 

There is another strong remark arising from the same 
passage in the epistle ; to make which understood, it will 
be necessary to state the passage over again, and somewhat 
more at length. 

" I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's 
" sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive to- 
" gether with me in your prayers to God for me, that I 
" may be delivered from them that do not believe in 
" Judaea — that I may come unto you with joy by the 
" will of God, and may with you be refreshed." 

I desire the reader to call to mind that part of St. 
Paul's history which took place after his arrival at Jeru- 
salem, and which employs the seven last chapters of the 
Acts ; and I build upon it this observation — that sup- 
posing the Epistle to the Romans to have been a forgery, 
and the author of the forgery to have had the Acts of the 
Apostles before him, and to have there seen that St. Paul, 
in fact, " was not delivered from the unbelieving Jews," 
but, on the contrary, that he was taken into custody at 
Jerusalem, and brought to Rome a prisoner — it is next 



28 HOR^E PAULINA. 

to impossible that he should have made St. Paul express 
expectations so contrary to what he saw had been the 
event ; and utter prayers, with apparent hopes of success, 
which he must have known were frustrated in the issue. 

This single consideration convinces me, that no concert 
or confederacy whatever subsisted between the epistle and 
the Acts of the Apostles ; and that whatever coincidences 
have been or can be pointed out between them, are un- 
sophisticated, and are the result of truth and reality. 

It also convinces me that the epistle was written not 
only in St. Paul's lifetime, but before he arrived at Jeru- 
salem ; for the important events relating to him which 
took place after his arrival at that city, must have been 
known to the Christian community soon after they hap- 
pened : they form the most public part of his history. 
But had they been known to the author of the epistle — in 
other words, had they then taken place — the passage 
which we have quoted from the epistle would not have been 
found there. 

No. VII. 

I now proceed to state the conformity which exists be- 
tween the argument of this epistle and the history of its 
reputed author. It is enough for this purpose to observe, 
that the object of the epistle, that is, of the argumentative 
part of it, was to place the Gentile convert upon a parity 
of situation with the Jewish, in respect of his religious 
condition, and his rank in the divine favour. The epistle 
supports this point by a variety of arguments ; such as, 
" that no man of either description was justified by the 
" works of the law — for this plain reason, that no man 
" had performed them ; that it became therefore necessary 
" to appoint another medium or condition of justification, 
" in which new medium the Jewish peculiarity was merged 
" and lost ; that Abraham's own justification was anterior 
" to the law, and independent of it ; that the Jewish con- 
" verts were to consider the law as now dead, and them- 
" selves as married to another ; that what the law in 
" truth could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 






No. VII. ROM. 29 

" God had done by sending- his Son ; that God had 
" rejected the unbelieving Jews, and had substituted in 
" their place a society of believers in Christ, collected 
" indifferently from Jews and Gentiles." Soon after the 
writing of this epistle, St. Paul, agreeably to the intention 
intimated in the epistle itself, took his journey to Jeru- 
salem. The day after he arrived there, he was introduced 
to the church. What passed at this interview is thus re- 
lated, Acts, xxi. 19 *. " When he had saluted them, he 
" declared particularly what things God had wrought 
" among the Gentiles by his ministry : and when they 
" heard it, they glorified the Lord ; and said unto him, 
" Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there 
" are which believe ; and they are all zealous of the law; 
" and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all 
" the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake 
" Moses, saying, that they ought not to circumcise their 
" children, neither to walk after the customs." St. Paul 
disclaimed the charge ; but there must have been some- 
thing to have led to it. Now, it is only to suppose that 
St. Paul openly professed the principles which the epistle 
contains ; that, in the course of his ministry, he had 
uttered the sentiments which he is here made to write ; 
and the matter is accounted for. Concerning the accusa- 
tion which public rumour had brought against him to 
Jerusalem, I will not say that it was just ; but I will say 
that, if he was the author of the epistle before us, and if 
his preaching was consistent with his writing, it was ex- 
tremely natural ; for, though it be not a necessary, surely 
it is an easy inference, that if the Gentile convert, who 
did not observe the law of Moses, held as advantageous a 
situation in his religious interests as the Jewish convert 
who did, there could be no strong reason for observing 
that law at all. The remonstrance therefore of the church 
of Jerusalem, and the report which occasioned it, were 
founded in no very violent misconstruction of the apostle's 
doctrine. His reception at Jerusalem was exactly what I 
should have expected the author of this epistle to have met 
with. I am entitled, therefore, to argue that a separate 
narrative of effects experienced by St. Paul, similar to 



30 HORiE PAULINiE. 

what a person might be expected to experience, who held 
the doctrines advanced in this epistle, forms a proof that 
he did hold these doctrines ; and that the epistle bearing 
his name, in which such doctrines are laid down, actually 
proceeded from him. 



No. VIII. 

This number is supplemental to the former. I propose 
to point out in it two particulars in the conduct of the ar- 
gument, perfectly adapted to the historical circumstances 
under which the epistle was written ; which yet are free 
from all appearance of contrivance, and which it would 
not, I think, have entered into the mind of a sophist to con- 
trive. 

1. The Epistle to the Galatians relates to the same 
general question as the Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul 
had founded the church of Galatia ; at Rome he had never 
been. Observe now a difference in his manner of treating 
of the same subject, corresponding with this difference in 
his situation. In the Epistle to the Galatians he puts the 
point in a great measure upon authority : "I marvel that 
" ye are so soon removed from him that called you into 
" the grace of Christ, unto another gospel." Gal. i. 6. " I 
" certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached 
i( of me, is not after man ; for 1 neither received it of man, 
" neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus 
" Christ;" (i. 11, 12.) " I am afraid lest I have bestowed 
" upon you labour in vain ;" (iv. 11.) " I desire to 
" be present with you now, for I stand in doubt of you ;" 
(iv. 20.) " Behold I, Paul, say unto you, that, if ye be 
" circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;" (v. 2.) 
" This persuasion cometh not of him that called you ;" 
(v. 8.) This is the style in which he accosts the Gala- 
tians. In the epistle to the converts of Rome, where his 
authority was not established, nor his person known, he 
puts the same point entirely upon argument. The perusal 
of the epistle will prove this to the satisfaction of every 
reader : and, as the observation relates to the whole con- 



No. VIII. ROM. & GALAT. 31 

tents of the epistle, I forbear adducing separate extracts. I 
repeat, therefore, that we have pointed out a distinction in 
the two epistles, suited to the relation in which the author 
stood to his different correspondents. 

Another adaptation, and somewhat of the same kind, is 
the following : 

2. The Jews, we know, were very numerous at Rome, 
and probably formed a principal part amongst the new 
converts ; so much so, that the Christians seem to have 
been known at Rome rather as a denomination of Jews, 
than as any thing else. In an epistle, consequently, to the 
Roman believers, the point to be endeavoured after by St. 
Paul was, to reconcile the Jewish converts to the opinion, 
that the Gentiles were admitted by God to a parity of re- 
ligious situation with themselves, and that without their 
being bound by the law of Moses. The Gentile converts 
would probably accede to this opinion very readily. In 
this epistle, therefore, though directed to the Roman church 
in general, it is in truth a Jew writing to Jews. Ac- 
cordingly you will take notice, that as often as his argu- 
ment leads him to say any thing derogatory from the 
Jewish institution, he constantly follows it by a softening 
clause. Having (ii. 28, 29) pronounced, not much per- 
haps to the satisfaction of the native Jews, " that he is 
" not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither that circum- 
" cision which is outward in the flesh," he adds imme- 
diately, " What advantage then hath the Jew, or what 
" profit is there in circumcision ? Much every way." 
Having in the third chapter, ver. 28, brought his argu- 
ment to this formal conclusion, " that a man is justified 
" by faith, without the deeds of the law," he presently 
subjoins, ver. 31, " Do we then make void the law through 
" faith ? God forbid : yea, ive establish the law." In 
the seventh chapter, when in the sixth verse he had ad- 
vanced the bold assertion, that, " now we are delivered 
" from the law, that being dead wherein we were held ; " 
in the very next verse he comes in with this healing ques- 
tion, " What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God 
" forbid ; nay, I had not known sin but by the law." 
Having in the following words insinuated, or rather more 



32 UORJE PAULINA. 

than insinuated, the inefficacy of the Jewish law, viii. 3 ; 
" for what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
" through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the like- 
" ness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the 
flesh ; " after a digression indeed, but that sort of a di- 
gression which he could never resist, a rapturous contem- 
plation of his Christian hope, and which occupies the lat- 
ter part of this chapter ; we find him in the next, as if 
sensible that he had said something which would give of- 
fence, returning to his Jewish brethren in terms of the 
warmest affection and respect : [ix. 1. . .] "I say the truth 
" in Christ ; I lie not ; my conscience also bearing me 
" witness, in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heavi- 
" ness and continual sorrow in my heart ; for I could 
" wish that myself were accursed from Christ,^/* my 
" brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are 
" Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the 
" glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and 
" the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the 
Ci fathers ; and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ 
" came" When, in the thirty-first and thirty-second 
verses of this ninth chapter, he represented to the Jews 
the error of even the best of their nation, by telling them 
that " Israel, which followed after the law of righteous- 
" ness, had not attained to the law of righteousness, because 
" they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works 
" of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone," 
he takes care to annex to his declaration these conciliating 
expressions [x. 1, °Z.~\ : " Brethren, ?ny heart's desire and 
" prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved ; for 
" I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not 
" according to knowledge." Lastly, having, x. 20,21, by 
the application of a passage in Isaiah insinuated the most 
ungrateful of all propositions to a Jewish ear, the rejection 
of the Jewish nation, as God's peculiar people ; he hastens, 
as it were, to qualify the intelligence of their fall by this 
interesting expostulation : " I say, then, hath God cast 
" away his people (i, e. wholly and entirely)? "God 
"forbid ; for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abra- 
" ham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away 



No. I. 1 COR. 33 

" his people which he foreknew :" and follows this thought, 
throughout the whole of the eleventh chapter, in a series of 
reflections calculated to soothe the Jewish converts, as well 
as to procure from their Gentile brethren respect to the 
Jewish institution. Now all this is perfectly natural. In 
a real St. Paul writing to real converts, it is what anxiety 
to bring them over to his persuasion would naturally pro- 
duce ; but there is an earnestness and a personality, if I 
may so call it, in the manner, which a cold forgery, I ap- 
prehend, would neither have conceived nor supported. 



CHAP. III. 

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 

No. I. 

Before we proceed to compare this epistle with the history, 
or with any other epistle, we will employ one number in 
stating certain remarks applicable to our argument, which 
arise from a perusal of the epistle itself. 

By an expression in the first verse of the seventh chap- 
ter, " now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto 
me," it appears, that this letter to the Corinthians was 
written by St. Paul in answer to one which he had received 
from them ; and that the seventh, and some of the follow- 
ing chapters, are taken up in resolving certain doubts, and 
regulating certain points of order, concerning which the 
Corinthians had in their letter consulted him. This alone 
is a circumstance considerably in favour of the authenticity 
of the epistle : for it must have been a far-fetched con- 
trivance in a forgery, first to have feigned the receipt of a 
letter from the church of Corinth, which letter does not 
appear ; and then to have drawn up a fictitious answer to 
it, relative to a great variety of doubts and inquiries, purely 
economical and domestic ; and which, though likely enough 
to have occurred to an infant society, in a situation and 

D 



34 HOR^E PAULXNiE. 

under an institution so novel as that of a Christian church 
then was, it must have very much exercised the author's 
invention, and could have answered no imaginable purpose 
of forgery, to introduce the mention of at all. Particulars 
of the kind we refer to, are such as the following : the 
rule of duty and prudence relative to entering into mar- 
riage, as applicable to virgins, to widows ; the case of hus- 
bands married to unconverted wives, of wives having un- 
converted husbands ; that case where the unconverted 
party chooses to separate, where he chooses to continue the 
union ; the effect which their conversion produced upon 
their prior state, of circumcision, of slavery ; the eating 
of things offered to idols, as it was in itself, as others 
were affected by it ; the joining in idolatrous sacrifices ; 
the decorum to be observed in their religious assemblies, 
the order of speaking, the silence of women, the covering 
or uncovering of the head, as it became men, as it became 
women. These subjects, with their several subdivisions, 
are so particular, minute, and numerous, that, though they 
be exactly agreeable to the circumstances of the persons to 
whom the letter was written, nothing, I believe, but the 
existence and reality of those circumstances, could have 
suggested them to the writer's thoughts. 

But this is not the only nor the principal observation 
upon the correspondence between the church of Corinth 
and their apostle, which I wish to point out. It appears, 
I think, in this correspondence, that although the Corin- 
thians had written to St. Paul, requesting his answer and 
his directions in the several points above enumerated, yet 
that they had not said one syllable about the enormities 
and disorders which had crept in amongst them, and in 
the blame of which they all shared ; but that St. Paul's 
information concerning the irregularities then prevailing at 
Corinth had come round to him from other quarters. 
The quarrels and disputes excited by their contentious ad- 
herence to their different teachers, and by their placing of 
them in competition with one another, were not mentioned 
in their letter ; but communicated to St. Paul by more 
private intelligence : "It hath been declared unto me, my 
" brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that 



No. I. 1 COR. 35 

" there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that 
" every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, 
" and I of Cephas, and I of Christ ;" (i. 11, 12.) The 
incestuous marriage " of a man with his father's wife," 
which St. Paul reprehends with so much severity in the 
fifth chapter of our epistle, and which was not the crime 
of an individual only, but a crime in which the whole 
church, by tolerating and conniving at it, had rendered 
themselves partakers, did not come to St. Paul's know- 
ledge by the letter, but by a rumour which had reached 
his ears : " It is reported commonly that there is forni- 
" cation among you, and such fornication as is not so 
" much as named among the Gentiles, that one should 
" have his father's wife ; and ye are puffed up, and have 
" not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed 
" might be taken away from among you ; " (v. 1, 2.) 
Their going to law before the judicature of the country, 
rather than arbitrate and adjust their disputes among 
themselves, which St. Paul animadverts upon with his 
usual plainness, was not intimated to him in the letter, 
because he tells them his opinion of this conduct, before he 
comes to the contents of the letter. Their litigiousness 
is censured by St. Paul in the sixth chapter of his epistle, 
and it is only at the beginning of the seventh chapter that 
he proceeds upon the articles which he found in their 
letter ; and he proceeds upon them with this preface : 
" Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me ; " 
(vii. 1.) which introduction he would not have used, if 
he had been already discussing any of the subjects con- 
cerning which they had written. Their irregularities in 
celebrating the Lord's supper, and the utter perversion of 
the institution which ensued, were not in the letter, as is 
evident from the terms in which St. Paul mentions the 
notice he had received of it: [xi. 17,18.] "Now 
" in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that 
" ye come together not for the better, but for the worse ; 
" for first of all, when ye come together in the church, / 
" hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly be- 
" lieve it" Now that the Corinthians should, in their own 
letter, exhibit the fair side of their conduct to the apostle, 

d 2 



36 HORJE PAULINiE. 

and conceal from him the faults of their behaviour, was 
extremely natural, and extremely probable ; but it was a 
distinction which would not, I think, have easily occurred 
to the author of a forgery ; and much less likely is it, 
that it should have entered into his thoughts to make the 
distinction appear in the way in which it does appear, 
viz. not by the original letter, not by any express observ- 
ation upon it in the answer, but distantly by marks per- 
ceivable in the manner, or in the order, in which St. Paul 
takes notice of their faults. 



No. II. 

Our epistle purports to have been written after St. 
Paul had already been at Corinth : "I, brethren, when 
" I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of 
"wisdom:" (ii. 1.) and in many other places to the 
same effect. It purports also to have been written upon 
the eve of another visit to that church : "I will come to 
" you shortly, if the Lord will;" (iv. 19.) and again: 
" I will come to you when I shall pass through Mace- 
" donia ; " (xvi. 5.) Now the history relates that St. Paul 
did in fact visit Corinth twice ; once as recorded at length 
in the eighteenth, and a second time as mentioned briefly 
in the twentieth chapter of the Acts. The same history also 
informs us, Acts, xx. 1 , that it was from Ephesus St. Paul 
proceeded [through Macedonia J upon his second journey 
into Greece. Therefore, as the epistle purports to have been 
written a short time preceding that journey ; and as St. 
Paul, the history tells us, had resided more than two years 
at Ephesus before he set out upon it, it follows that it must 
have been from Ephesus, to be consistent with the history, 
that the epistle was written ; and every note of place in 
the epistle agrees with this supposition. " If, after the 
" manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, 
" what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not ?" (xv. 32.) 
I allow that the apostle might say this, wherever he was ; 
but it was more natural and more to the purpose to say it, 
if he was at Ephesus at the time, and in the midst of 



No. II. 1 COR. 37 

those conflicts to which the expression relates. — " The 
" churches of Asia salute you ; " (xvi. 19.) Asia, through- 
out the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul, 
does not mean the whole of Asia Minor or Anatolia, nor 
even the whole of the proconsular Asia, but a district in 
the anterior part of that country, called Lydian Asia, 
divided from the rest, much as Portugal is from Spain, 
and of which district Ephesus was the capital. — " Aquila 
" and Priscilla salute you ; " (xvi. 19«) Aquila and Pris- 
cilla were at Ephesus during the period within which this 
epistle was written. (Acts, xviii. 18 . .26.) — " I will 
" tarry &t Ephesus until Pentecost;" (xvi. 8.) This, I 
apprehend, is in terms almost asserting that he was at 
Ephesus at the time of writing the epistle. — "A great 
" door and effectual is opened unto me ; " (xvi. 9.) How 
well this declaration corresponded with the state of things 
at Ephesus, and the progress of the Gospel in these parts, 
we learn from the reflection with which the historian con- 
cludes the account of certain transactions which passed 
there : "So mightily grew the word of God and pre- 
" vailed ;" (Acts, xix. 20.) as well as from the complaint 
of Demetrius, " that not alone at Ephesus, but almost 
" throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and 
" turned away much people ;" (xix. 26.) — " And there 
" are many adversaries," says the epistle, xvi. 9« Look 
into the history of this period [A. xix. 9.] : " When 
" divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil 
" of that way before the multitude, he departed from 
" them, and separated the disciples." The conformity 
therefore upon this head of comparison, is circumstantial 
and perfect. If any one think that this is a conformity so 
obvious, that any forger of tolerable caution and sagacity, 
would have taken care to preserve it, I must desire such 
a one to read the epistle for himself ; and when he has 
done so, to declare whether he has discovered one mark 
of art or design ; whether the notes of time and place 
appear to him to be inserted with any reference to each 
other, with any view of their being compared with each 
other, or for the purpose of establishing a visible agree- 
ment with the history, in respect of them. 

d 3 



38 RORM PAULINiE. 



No. III. 

Chap. iv. 17 — 19. " For this cause have I sent unto 
" you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in 
" the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my 
"ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in 
" every church. Now some are puffed up, as though I 
" would not come to you ; but I will come to you shortly, 
" if the Lord will." 

With this I compare Acts, xix. 21, 22 : " After these 
" things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when 
" he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia^ to go 
" to Jerusalem ; saying, after I have been there, I must 
" also see Rome : so he sent unto Macedonia two of them 
" that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus." 

Though it be not said, it appears I think with sufficient 
certainty, I mean from the history, independently of the 
epistle, that Timothy was sent upon this occasion into 
Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital city, as well as 
into Macedonia ; for the sending of Timothy and Erastus 
is, in the passage where it is mentioned, plainly connected 
with St. Paul's own journey ; he sent them before him. 
As he therefore purposed to go into Achaia himself, it is 
highly probable that they were to go thither also. Never- 
theless they are said only to have been sent into Mace- 
donia, because Macedonia was in truth the country to 
which they went immediately from Ephesus ; being 
directed, as we suppose, to proceed afterwards from thence 
into Achaia. If this be so, the narrative agrees with the 
epistle ; and the agreement is attended with very little 
appearance of design. One thing at least concerning it 
is certain : that if this passage of St. Paul's history had 
been taken from his letter, it would have sent Timothy to 
Corinth by name, or expressly however into Achaia. 

But there is another circumstance in these two passages 
much less obvious, in which an agreement holds, without 
any room for suspicion that it was produced by design. 
We have observed that the sending of Timothy into the 
peninsula of Greece was connected in the narrative with 






No. III. & IV. 1 COR. iv. 17. xvi. 10, 11. 39 

St. Paul's own journey thither ; it is stated as the effect 
of the same resolution. Paul purposed to go into Mace- 
donia ; " so he sent two of them that ministered unto 
" him, Timotheus and Erastus." Now in the epistle also 
you remark that, when the apostle mentions his having 
sent Timothy unto them, in the very next sentence he 
speaks of his own visit : " for this cause have I sent unto 
" you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, &c. Now 
" some are puffed up, as though I would not come to 
" you ; but I will come to you shortly, if God will." 
Timothy's journey we see is mentioned in the history, and 
in the epistle, in close connection with St. Paul's own. 
Here is the same order of thought and intention ; yet 
conveyed under such diversity of circumstance and ex- 
pression, and the mention of them in the epistle so allied 
to the occasion which introduces it, viz. the insinuation of 
his adversaries that he would come to Corinth no more, 
that I am persuaded no attentive reader will believe, that 
these passages were written in concert with one another, 
or will doubt but that the agreement is unsought and un- 
contrived. 

But, in the Acts, Erastus accompanied Timothy in this 
journey, of whom no mention is made in the epistle. 
From what has been said, in our observations £No. II. 
(i.) xvi. 23.] upon the Epistle to the Romans, it appears 
probable that Erastus was a Corinthian. If so, though he 
accompanied Timothy to Corinth, he was only returning 
home, and Timothy was the messenger charged with St. 
Paul's orders. At any rate, this discrepancy shows that 
the passages were not taken from one another. 



No. IV. 

Chap. xvi. 10, 11. " Now, if Timotheus come, see 
that he may be with you without fear ; for he worketh 
the work of the Lord, as I also do : let no man there- 
" fore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that 
" he may come unto me, for I look for him with the 
" brethren." 

d 4 



a 



40 HOK/E PAULINA. 

From the passage considered in the preceding- number, 
it appears that Timothy was sent to Corinth, either with 
the epistle, or before it : " For this cause have I sent unto 
you Tirnotheus." From the passage now quoted, we infer 
that Timothy was not sent with the epistle ; for had he 
been the bearer of the letter, or accompanied it, would 
St. Paul in that letter have said, "if Timothy come?" 
Nor is the sequel consistent with the supposition of his 
carrying the letter ; for if Timothy was with the apostle 
when he wrote the letter, could he say, as he does, " I 
look for him with the brethren ? " I conclude therefore 
that Timothy had left St. Paul to proceed upon his 
journey before the letter was written. Farther, the 
passage before us seems to imply, that Timothy was not 
expected by St. Paul to arrive at Corinth, till after they 
had received the letter. He gives them directions in the 
letter how to treat him when he should arrive : "if he 
come," act towards him so and so. Lastly, the whole 
form of expression is most naturally applicable to the sup- 
position of Timothy's coming to Corinth, not directly 
from St. Paul, but from some other quarter ; and that 
his instructions had been, when he should reach Corinth, 
to return. Now, how stands this matter in the history ? 
Turn to the nineteenth chapter and twenty-first verse of 
the Acts, and you will find that Timothy did not, when 
sent from Ephesus, where he left St. Paul, and where the 
present epistle was written, proceed by a straight course 
to Corinth, but that he went round through Macedonia. 
This clears up every thing ; for, although Timothy was 
sent forth upon his journey before the letter was written, 
yet he might not reach Corinth till after the letter arrived 
there ; and he would come to Corinth, when he did come, 
not directly from St. Paul at Ephesus, but from some part 
of Macedonia. Here therefore is a circumstantial and 
critical agreement, and unquestionably without design ; for 
neither of the two passages in the epistle mentions 
Timothy's journey into Macedonia at all, though nothing 
but a circuit of that kind can explain and reconcile the 
expressions which the writer uses. [Of this journey of 



No. V. 1 COR. i. 12. iii. 6. 41 

Timothy a fuller account is given in the Appendix, on 
Acts, xix. 22.] 



No. V. 

Chap. i. 12. " Now this I say, that every one of you 
" saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, 
" and I of Christ." 

Also, iii. 6. " I have planted, Apollos watered, but 
" God gave the increase." 

This expression, " I have planted, Apollos watered," 
imports two things : first, that Paul had been at Corinth 
before Apollos ; secondly, that Apollos had been at Co- 
rinth after Paul, but before the writing of this epistle. 
This implied account of the several events, and of the 
order in which they took place, corresponds exactly with 
the history. St. Paul, after his first visit into Greece, 
returned from Corinth into Syria by the way of Ephesus ; 
and, dropping his companions Aquila and Priscilla at 
Ephesus, he proceeded forwards to Jerusalem : from 
Jerusalem he descended to Antioch ; and from thence 
made a progress through some of the upper or northern 
provinces of the Lesser Asia (Acts, xviii. 19. 23.) : during 
which progress, and consequently in the interval between 
St. Paul's first and second visit to Corinth, and conse- 
quently also before the writing of this epistle, which was 
at Ephesus, two years at least after the apostle's return 
from his progress, we hear of Apollos, and we hear of 
him at Corinth. Whilst St. Paul was engaged, as hath 
been said, in Phrygia and Galatia, Apollos came down to 
Ephesus ; and being, in St. Paul's absence, instructed by 
Aquila and Priscilla, and having obtained letters of re- 
commendation from the church at Ephesus, he passed 
over to Achaia ; and when he was there, we read that he 
" helped them much which had believed through grace, 
" for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly." 
Acts, xviii. 27, 28. To have brought Apollos into Achaia, 
of which Corinth was the capital city, as well as the prin- 
cipal Christian church ; and to have shown that he 



42 B.ORJE PAULINA. 

preached the gospel in that country, would have heen 
sufficient for our purpose. But the history happens also 
to mention Corinth by name, as the place in which Apollos, 
after his arrival in Achaia, fixed his residence ; for, pro- 
ceeding with the account of St. Paul's travels, it tells us, 
that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed 
through the upper coasts, came down to Ephesus ; (xix. 1.) 
What is said therefore of Apollos, in the epistle, coincides 
exactly, and especially in the point of chronology, with 
what is delivered concerning him in the history. The 
only question now is, whether the allusions were made 
with a regard to this coincidence. Now, the occasions 
and purposes for which the name of Apollos is introduced 
in the Acts and in the epistles, are so independent and so 
remote, that it is impossible to discover the smallest 
reference from one to the other. Apollos is mentioned in 
the Acts, in immediate connection with the history of 
Aquila and Priscilla, and for the very singular circum- 
stance of his "knowing only the baptism of John/' In 
the epistle, where none of these circumstances are taken 
notice of, his name first occurs, for the purpose of re- 
proving the contentious spirit of the Corinthians ; and it 
occurs only in conjunction with that of some others : 
" Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, 
"and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." The second 
passage in which Apollos appears, " I have planted, 
" Apollos watered," fixes, as we have observed, the order 
of time amongst three distinct events ; but it fixes this, 
I will venture to pronounce, without the writer perceiving 
that he was doing any such thing, The sentence fixes 
this order in exact conformity with the history ; but it is 
itself introduced solely for the sake of the reflection which 
follows : [iii. 70 " Neither is he that planteth any 
" thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the 
" increase." 






No. VI. 1 COR. iv. 11, 12. 43 



No. VI. 

Chap. iv. 11, 12. "Even unto this present hour we 
" both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, 
" and have no certain dwelling-place ; and labour, work- 
" ing with our own hands." 

We are expressly told, in the history, that at Corinth 
St. Paul laboured with his own hands : [A. xviii. 1 . . 3. 2 
" He found Aquila and Priscilla ; and, because he was of 
" the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought ; for 
" by their occupation they were tent-makers." But in 
the text before us, he is made to say, that " he laboured 
even unto the present hour,' 9 that is, to the time of writing 
the epistle at Ephesus. Now, in the narration of St. 
Paul's transactions at Ephesus, delivered in the nineteenth 
chapter of the Acts, nothing is said of his working with 
his own hands ; but in the twentieth chapter we read, that 
upon his return from Greece, he sent for the elders of the 
church of Ephesus, to meet him at Miletus ; and in the 
discourse which he there addressed to them, amidst some 
other reflections which he calls to their remembrance, we 
find the following : [A. xx. 33, 34. J " I have coveted 
" no man's silver, or gold, or apparel ; yea, you your- 
" selves know, that these hands have ministered unto my 
" necessities, and to them that were with me." The 
reader will not forget to remark, that though St. Paul be 
now at Miletus, it is to the elders of the church of 
Ephesus he is speaking, when he says, " You yourselves 
" know that these hands have ministered to my neces- 
" sities ;" and that the whole discourse relates to his con- 
duct, during his last preceding residence at Ephesus. That 
manual labour therefore, which he had exercised at 
Corinth, he continued at Ephesus ; and not only so, but 
continued it during that particular residence at Ephesus, 
near the conclusion of which this epistle was written : so 
that he might, with the strictest truth, say, at the time 
of writing the epistle, "Even unto this present hour 
" we labour, working with our own hands." The cor- 
respondency is sufficient then, as to the undesignedness of 



44 HORiE PAULINiE. 

it. It is manifest to my judgment, that if the history, in 
this article, had been taken from the epistle, this cir- 
cumstance, if it appeared at all, would have appeared in 
its place^ that is, in the direct account of St. Paul's 
transactions at Ephesus. The correspondency would not 
have been effected, as it is, by a kind of reflected stroke, 
that is, by a reference in a subsequent speech, to what in 
the narrative was omitted. Nor is it likely, on the other 
hand, that a circumstance which is not extant in the history 
of St. Paul at Ephesus, should have been made the subject 
of a factitious allusion, in an epistle purporting to be 
written by him from that place : not to mention that the 
allusion itself, especially as to time, is too oblique and 
general to answer any purpose of forgery whatever. 



No. VII. 

Chap. ix. 20. " And unto the Jews I became as a 
" Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are 
" under the law, as under the law." 

We have the disposition here described, exemplified in 
two instances which the history records ; one, Acts, xvi. 
3. " Him (Timothy) would Paul have to go forth with 
" him, and took and circumcised him, because of the Jews 
" in those quarters ; for they knew all that his father was 
" a Greek." This was before the writing of the epistle. 
The other, Acts, xxi. 23 . . 26, and after the writing of 
the epistle : " Do this that we say to thee : we have four 
" men which have a vow on them : them take, and purify 
" thyself with them, that they may shave their heads ; 
" and all may know that those things, whereof they were 
" informed concerning thee, are nothing ; but that thou 
" thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. — 
" Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying 
" himself with them, entered into the temple." Nor does 
this concurrence between the character and the instances 
look like the result of contrivance. St. Paul, in the epistle, 
describes, or is made to describe, his own accommodating 
conduct towards Jews and towards Gentiles, towards the 



No. VII. & VIII. 1 COR. ix. 20. i. 14—17. 45 

weak and over scrupulous, towards men, indeed, of every 
variety of character; [vv. 21, 22.] "to them that are 
" without law as without law, being" not without law to 
" God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain 
" them that are without law ; to the weak became I as 
" weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all 
" things to all men, that I might gain some." This is 
the sequel of the text which stands at the head of the 
present number. Taking, therefore, the whole passage 
together, the apostle's condescension to the Jews is men- 
tioned only as a part of his general disposition towards 
all. It is not probable, that this character should have 
been made up from the instances in the Acts, which relate 
solely to his dealings with the Jews. It is not probable 
that a sophist should take his hint from those instances, 
and then extend it so much beyond them : and it is still 
more incredible, that the two instances in the Acts, cir- 
cumstantially related, and interwoven with the history, 
should have been fabricated, in order to suit the character 
which St. Paul gives of himself in the epistle. 



No. VIII. 

Chap. i. 14 — 17. " I thank God that I baptized none 
" of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that 
" I baptized in mine own name ; and I baptized also the 
?.' household of Stephanas : besides, I know not whether I 
" baptized any other ; for Christ sent me not to baptize, 
" but to preach the gospel." 

It may be expected that those whom the apostle bap- 
tized with his own hands, were converts distinguished 
from the rest by some circumstance, either of eminence, 
or of connection with him. Accordingly, of the three 
names here mentioned, Crispus, we find, from Acts, xviii. 
8, was a " chief ruler of the Jewish synagogue at Co- 
" rinth, who believed in the Lord, with all his house." 
Gaius, it appears from Romans, xvi. 23, was St. Paul's 
host at Corinth, and the host, he tells us, " of the whole 
church." The household of Stephanas, we read in the 



46 HORiE PAULINiE. 

sixteenth chapter of this epistle, [v. 15.] " were the first 
fruits of Achaia." Here, therefore, is the propriety we 
expected : and it is a proof of reality not to be contemned ; 
for their names appearing in the several places in which 
they occur, with a mark of distinction belonging to each, 
could hardly be the effect of chance, without any truth to 
direct it : and, on the other hand, to suppose that they 
were picked out from these passages, and brought to- 
gether in the text before us, in order to display a con- 
formity of names, is both improbable in itself, and is 
rendered more so by the purpose for which they are in- 
troduced. They come in to assist St. Paul's exculpation 
of himself against the possible charge, of having assumed 
the character of the founder of a separate religion, and 
with no other visible, or, as I think, imaginable design.* 

* Chap. i. 1 . " Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, 
" through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the 
church of God which is at Corinth." — The only account we have 
of any person who bore the name of Sosthenes, is found in the 
eighteenth chapter of the Acts. When the Jews at Corinth had 
brought Paul before Gallio, and Gallio had dismissed their com- 
plaint as unworthy of his interference, and had driven them from the 
judgment-seat ; " then all the Greeks," says the historian, [v. 17.] 
" took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him 
before the judgment-seat." The Sosthenes here spoken of was a 
Corinthian ; and if he was a Christian, and with St. Paul when he 
wrote this epistle, was likely enough to be joined with him in the 
salutation of the Corinthian church. But here occurs a difficulty. 
If Sosthenes was a Christian at the time of this uproar, why should 
the Greeks beat him ? The assault upon the Christians was made 
by the Jews. It was the Jews who had brought Paul before the 
magistrate. If it had been the Jews also who had beaten Sosthenes, 
I should not have doubted but that he had been a favourer of St. 
Paul, and the same person who is joined with him in the epistle. 
Let us see, therefore, whether there be not some error in our pre- 
sent text. The Alexandrian manuscript gives 'ndweq without of 
"EXXriveq, and is followed in this reading by the Coptic version, by 
the Arabic version published by Erpenius, by the Vulgate, and by 
Bede's Latin version. Three Greek manuscripts, again, as well as 
Chrysostom, give ol 'iou&aibi, in the place of ol "EXXyvei;. A great 
plurality of manuscripts authorise the reading which is retained in 
our copies. In this variety it appears to me extremely probable 
that the historian originally wrote irdvres alone, and that ol "EXX^veq 
and ol 'lov^ocTot have been respectively added as explanatory of what 
the word irdvres was supposed to mean. The sentence, without 



No. IX. & X. 1 COR. xvi. 10, 11. xvi. 1. 47 



No. IX. 

Chap. xvi. 10, 11. " Now, if Timotheus come, let 
" no man despise him." — Why despise him ? This charge 
is not given concerning any other messenger whom St. 
Paul sent ; and, in the different epistles, many such mes- 
sengers are mentioned. Turn to 1 Timothy, iv. 12, and 
you will find that Timothy was a young man, younger, 
probably, than those who were usually employed in the 
Christian mission ; and that St. Paul, apprehending lest 
he should, on that account, be exposed to contempt, urges 
upon him the caution which is there inserted, " Let no 
man despise thy youth." 

No. X. 

Chap. xvi. 1. " Now, concerning the collection for the 
" saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, 
" even so do ye." 

The churches of Galatia and Phrygia were the last 
churches which St. Paul had visited before the writing of 
this epistle. He was now at Ephesus, and he came thither 
immediately from visiting these churches [the second 
time]] : " He went over all the country of Galatia and 
" Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. . . And 

the addition of either name, would run very perspicuously thus : 
" Kai aTrrj\a.<T£v avrovt; aito tov jS'/jjOcaro^* im\cx,€6[A£VQi Se TravT^ 'LccoSsvtjv 
" tov dpxio-wdyuyov, \tvktov 'l^i: poo-Oev tov jS^/xaTs^ : and he drove them 
" away from the judgment-seat; and they all," viz. tke crowd of Jews 
whom the judge had bid begone, " took Sosthenes, and beat him 
" before the judgment-seat." It is certain that, as the whole body 
of the people were Greeks, the application of all to them is unusual 
and hard. If I was describing an insurrection at Paris, I might say 
all the Jews, all the Protestants, or all the English acted so and so ; 
but I should scarcely say all the French, when the whole mass of 
the community were of that description. As what is here offered 
is founded upon a various reading, and that in opposition to the 
greater part of the manuscripts that are extant, I have not given it 
a place in the text. 

[A simpler explanation of this difficulty is proposed, on Acts, 
xviii. 17.] 



48 HORiE PAULINiE. 

" it came to pass that Paul having passed through the 
" upper coasts," (viz. the above-named countries, called 
the upper coasts, as being the northern part of Asia 
Minor) " came to Ephesus." Acts, xviii. 23 ; xix. 1. 
These therefore, probably, were the last churches at which 
he had left directions for their public conduct during his 
absence. Although two years intervened between his 
journey to Ephesus and his writing this epistle, yet it 
does not appear that during that time he visited any other 
church. That he had not been silent when he was in 
Galatia [for the first time, A. xvi. 6.], upon this subject 
of contribution for the poor, is farther made out from 
a hint which he lets fall in his epistle to that church : [ii. 
11.] " Only they (viz. the other apostles) would that 
" we should remember the poor, the same also which I was 
" forward to do." 



No. XL 

Chap. iv. 18. " Now, some are puffed up, as though 
" I would not come to you." 

Why should they suppose that he would not come ? 
Turn to the first chapter of the Second Epistle [vv. 15. . 
18.] to the Corinthians, and you will find that he had 
already disappointed them : " I was minded to come unto 
" you before, that you might have a second benefit ; and 
" to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out 
" of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on 
" my way toward Judea. When I, therefore, was thus 
" minded, did I use lightness ? Or the things that I 
" purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with 
" me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay ? But, as 
" God is true, our word towards you was not yea and 
" nay." It appears from this quotation, that he had not 
only intended, but that he had promised them a visit 
before ; for, otherwise, why should he apologise for the 
change of his purpose, or express so much anxiety, lest 
this change should be imputed to any culpable fickleness in 
his temper ; and lest he should thereby seem to them, as 



No. XL & XII. 1 COR. iv. 18. v. 7, 8. 49 

one whose word was not, in any sort, to be depended 
upon ? Besides which, the terms made use of plainly 
refer to a promise : " Our ivord toward you was not yea 
" and •nay." St. Paul therefore had signified an intention 
which he had not been able to execute ; and this seeming 
breach of his word, and the delay of his visit, had, with 
some who were evil affected towards him, given birth to 
a suggestion that he would come no more to Corinth. 



No. XII. 

Chap. v. 7> 8. " For even Christ, our passover, is 
" sacrificed for us ; therefore let us keep the feast, not 
" with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
" wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity 
" and truth." 

Dr. Benson tells us, that from this passage, compared 
with chapter xvi. 8, it has been conjectured that this 
epistle was written about the time of the Jewish passover; 
and to me the conjecture appears to be very well founded. 
The passage to which Dr. Benson refers us is this : " I 
" will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." With this 
passage he ought to have joined another in the same con- 
text : [v. G.] " And it may be that I will abide, yea and 
" winter with you :" for, from the two passages laid 
together, it follows that the epistle was written before Pen- 
tecost, yet after winter ; which necessarily determines the 
date to the part of the year, within which the passover 
falls. It was written before Pentecost, because he says, 
" I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." It was 
written after winter, because he tells them, " It" may be 
" that I may abide, yea and winter with you." The 
winter which the apostle purposed to pass at Corinth, was 
undoubtedly the winter next ensuing to the date of the 
epistle ; yet it was a winter subsequent to the ensuing 
Pentecost, because he did not intend to set forwards upon 
his journey [into Macedonia] till after that feast. The 
words " let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither 
" with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the 



50 HORiE PAULINiE. 

" unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," look very like 
words suggested by the season ; at least they have, upon 
that supposition, a force and significancy which do not 
belong to them upon auy other ; and it is not a little re- 
markable, that the hints casually dropped in the epistle, 
concerning particular parts of the year, should coincide 
with this supposition . 



CHAP. IV. 

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 

No. I. 

I will not say that it is impossible, having seen the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians, to construct a second with 
ostensible allusions to the first ; or that it is impossible 
that both should be fabricated, so as to carry on an order 
and continuation of story, by successive references to the 
same events. But I say, that this, in either case, must 
be the effect of craft and design. Whereas, whoever 
examines the allusions to the former epistle, which he 
finds in this, whilst he will acknowledge them to be such 
as would rise spontaneously to the hand of the writer, 
from the very subject of the correspondence, and the 
situation of the corresponding parties, supposing these to 
be real, will see no particle of reason to suspect, either that 
the clauses containing these allusions were insertions for 
the purpose, or that the several transactions of the Co- 
rinthian church were feigned, in order to form a train of 
narrative, or to support the appearance of connection 
between the two epistles. 

1. In the First Epistle, St. Paul announces his inten- 
tion of passing through Macedonia, in his way to Corinth : 
" I will come to you when I shall pass through Mace- 
" donia." In the Second Epistle, we find him arrived in 



No. I. 2 COR. ix. 2, 3, 4. ii. 12, 13. 51 

Macedonia, and about to pursue his journey to Corinth. 
But observe the manner in which this is made to appear : 
" I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast 
" of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a 
" year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many : yet 
" have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should 
"be in vain in this behalf ; that, as I said, ye may be 
" ready, lest haply, if they of Macedonia come with me, 
" and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should 
" be ashamed in this same confident boasting ; " (ix. 2, 3, 4.) 
St. Paul's being- in Macedonia at the time of writing" the 
epistle, is, in this passage, inferred only from his saying, 
that he had boasted to the Macedonians of the alacrity of 
his Achaian converts ; and from the fear which he ex- 
presses, lest, if any of the Macedonian Christians should 
come with him into Achaia, they should find his boasting 
unwarranted by the event. The business of the contri- 
bution is the sole cause of mentioning Macedonia at all. 
Will it be insinuated that this passage was framed merely 
to state that St. Paul was now in Macedonia ; aud, by 
that statement, to produce an apparent agreement with the 
purpose of visiting Macedonia, notified in the First Epistle? 
Or will it be thought probable, that, if a sophist had meant 
to place St. Paul in Macedonia, for the sake of giving 
countenance to his forgery, he would have done it in so 
oblique a manner as through the medium of the contri- 
bution ? 

The same thing may be observed of another text in the 
epistle, in which the name of Macedonia occurs : [ii. 12, 13.] 
" Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's 
" gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I 
" had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus, my 
" brother ; but taking my leave of them, I went from 
" thence into Macedonia." I mean, that it may be ob- 
served of this passage also, that there is a reason for 
mentioning Macedonia, entirely distinct from the purpose 
of showing St. Paul to be there. Indeed, if the passage 
before us show that point at all, it shows it so obscurely, 
that Grotius, though he did not doubt that Paul was now 
in Macedonia, refers this text to a different journey. Is 

e 2 



52 B.ORM PAULINA. ' 

this the hand of a forger, meditating to establish a false 
conformity ? 

The text, however, in which it is most strongly implied 
that St. Paul wrote the present epistle from Macedonia, 
is found in the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of the seventh 
chapter : U I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding 
"joyful in all our tribulation ; for when we were come 
" into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest ; without were 
" fightings, within were fears; nevertheless God, that 
" comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by 
" the coming of Titus." Yet even here, I think, no one 
will contend, that St. Paul's coming to Macedonia, or 
being in Macedonia, was the principal thing intended to 
be told ; or that the telling of it, indeed, was any part of 
the intention with which the text was written ; or that 
the mention even of the name of Macedonia was not 
purely incidental, in the description of those tumultuous 
sorrows with which the writer's mind had been lately 
agitated, and from which he was relieved by the coming 
of Titus. The five first verses of the eighth chapter, 
which commend the liberality of the Macedonian churches, 
do not, in my opinion, by themselves prove St. Paul to 
have been in Macedonia, at the time of writing the epistle. 
2. In the First Epistle, St. Paul denounces a severe 
censure against an incestuous marriage, which had taken 
place amongst the Corinthian converts, with the con- 
nivance, not to say with the approbation, of the church ; 
and enjoins the church to purge itself of this scandal, by 
expelling the offender from its society : " It is reported 
" commonly, that there is fornication among you, and 
" such fornication as is not so much as named amongst 
" the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife ; 
" and ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, 
" that he that hath done this deed might be taken away 
" from among you ; for I, verily, as absent in body, but 
" present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were 
" present, concerning him that hath so done this deed \ in 
" the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are 
" gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our 
" Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one unto Satan for 



No. I. 2 COR. ii. 6 . . 8. vii. 7 . . 9. 53 

" the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved 
" in the day of the Lord ; " (v. 1 — 5.) In the Second 
Epistle, we find this sentence executed, and the offender 
to be so affected with the punishment, that St. Paul now 
intercedes for his restoration : " Sufficient to such a man 
" is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that, 
" contrariwise, ye ought rather to forgive him and com- 
" fort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed 
" up with over-much sorrow ; wherefore I beseech you, 
" that ye would confirm your love towards him." (2 Cor. 
ii. 6, 7) 8.) Is this whole business feigned for the sake 
of carrying on a continuation of story through the two 
epistles ? The church also, no less than the offender, 
was brought by St. Paul's reproof to a deep sense of the 
impropriety of their conduct. Their penitence, and their 
respect to his authority, were, as might be expected, ex- 
ceedingly grateful to St. Paul : " We were comforted, 
" not by Titus's coming only, but by the consolation 
" wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us 
" your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind 
" towards me, so that I rejoiced the more ; for, though I 
" made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I 
" did repent ; for I perceive that the same epistle hath 
" made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now 
" I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye 
" sorrowed to repentance ; for ye were made sorry after a 
" godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in 
"nothing;" (vii. 7 — 9.) That this passage is to be 
referred to the incestuous marriage, is proved by the 
twelfth verse of the same chapter : " Though I wrote 
" unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the 
" wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong ; but that 
" our care for you, in the sight of God, might appear 
" unto you." There were, it is true, various topics of 
blame noticed in the First Epistle ; but there was none, 
except this of the incestuous marriage, which could be 
called a transaction between private parties, or of which it 
could be said that one particular person had " done the 
wrong," and another particular person "had suffered it." 
Could all this be without foundation ? or could it be put 

e 3 



54 HORiE PAULINJE. 

into the Second Epistle, merely to furnish an obscure 
sequel to what had been said about an incestuous marriage 
in the First ? 

3. In the sixteenth chapter of the First Epistle, a col- 
lection for the saints is recommended to be set forwards 
at Corinth : " Now, concerning the collection for the 
" saints, as I have given order [lately, A. xviii. 23.] to 
" the churches of Galatia, so do ye ;" (xvi. 1.) In the 
ninth chapter of the Second Epistle, such a collection is 
spoken of, as in readiness to be received : "As touching 
" the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to 
" write to you, for I know the forwardness of your mind, 
" for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that 
" Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked 
" very many ; " (ix. 1, 2.) This is such a continuation 
of the transaction as might be expected ; or, possibly it will 
be said, as might easily be counterfeited : but there is a 
circumstance of nicety in the agreement between the two 
epistles, which, I am convinced, the author of a forgery 
would not have hit upon, or which, if he had hit -upon it, 
he would have set forth with more clearness. The Second 
Epistle speaks of the Corinthians as having begun this 
eleemosynary business a year before : " This is expedient 
" for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also 
" to be forward a year ago ; " (viii. 10.) "I boast of you 
" to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year 
" ago;" (ix. 2.) From these texts it is evident, that some- 
thing had been done in the business a year before. It ap- 
pears, however, from other texts in the epistle, that the 
contribution was not yet collected or paid ; for brethren 
were sent from St. Paul to Corinth, " to make up their 
" bounty ;" (ix. 5.) They are urged to " perform the 
" doing of it ; " (viii. 11.) " And every man was exhorted 
" to give as he purposed in his heart ; " (ix. 7«) The con- 
tribution therefore, as represented in our present epistle, 
was in readiness, yet not received from the contributors ; 
was begun, was forward long before, yet not hitherto col- 
lected. Now this representation agrees with one, and only 
with one supposition, namely, that every man had laid by 
in store, had already provided the fund, from which he 



No. I. 2 COR. ix. 1, 2. 55 

was afterwards to contribute — the very case which the 
First Epistle authorises us to suppose to have existed ; for 
in that epistle St. Paul had charged the Corinthians, 
" upon the first day of the week, every one of them to lay 
" by in store as God had prospered him."* (1 Cor. 
xvi.*2.) 

* The following observations will satisfy us concerning the 
purity of our apostle's conduct in the suspicious business of a pe- 
cuniary contribution. 

1. He disclaims the having received any inspired authority for 
the directions which he is giving: "I speak not by commandment, 
" but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the 
" sincerity of your love." (2 Cor. viii. 8.) Who, that had a sinis- 
ter purpose to answer by the recommending of subscriptions, would 
thus distinguish, and thus lower the credit of his own recommend- 
ation ? 

2. Although he asserts the general right of christian ministers 
to a maintenance from their ministry, yet he protests against the 
making use of this right in his own person: iC Even so hath the 
" Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of 
" the gospel ; but I have used none of these things, neither have I 
" written these things that it should be so done unto me ; for it 
< s were better for me to die, than that any man should make my 
" glorying, i. e. my professions of disinterestedness, void." (1 Cor. 
ix. 14, 15.) 

3. He repeatedly proposes that there should be associates with 
himself in the management of the public bounty; not colleagues of 
his own appointment, but persons elected for that purpose by the 
contributors themselves : " And when I come, whomsoever ye shall 
" approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality 
" unto Jerusalem]: and if it be meet that I go also, they shall go 
" with me." (1 Cor. xvi. 3, 4.) And in the Second Epistle, what 
is here proposed, we find actually done, and done for the very pur- 
pose of guarding his character against any imputation that might 
be brought upon it, in the discharge of a pecuniary trust : "And 
u we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel 
" throughout all the churches ; and not that only, but who was also 
" chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace (gift) 
" which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord and 
" declaration of your ready mind ; avoiding this, that no man 
" should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us ; 
" providing for things honest, not only in the sight of the Lord, 
" but also in the sight of men ;" i. e. " not resting in the con- 
" sciousness of our own integrity, but in such a subject, careful also 
" to approve our integrity to the public judgment." (2 Cor. viii. 
18—21.) 



E 4 



56 HOBJE PAULINA. 



No. II. 

In comparing the Second Epistle to the Corinthians 
with the Acts of the Apostles, we are soon brought to ob- 
serve, not only that there exists no vestige either of the 
epistle having been taken from the history, or the history 
from the epistle ; but also that there appears in the con- 
tents of the epistle positive evidence, that neither was bor- 
rowed from the other. Titus, who bears a conspicuous 
part in the epistle, is not mentioned in the Acts of the 
Apostles at all. St. Paul's sufferings enumerated, chap. xi. 
24, " Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save 
" one ; thrice was I beaten with rods ; once was I stoned ; 
" thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a night and a day I have 
" been in the deep," cannot be made out from his history, 
as delivered in the Acts, nor would this account have been 
given by a writer, who either drew his knowledge of St. 
Paul from that history, or who was careful to preserve a 
conformity Avith it. The account in the epistle, of St. Paul's 
escape from Damascus, though agreeing in the main fact 
with the account of the same transaction in the Acts, is 
related with such difference of circumstance, as renders it 
utterly improbable that one should be derived from the 
other. The two accounts, placed by the side of each other, 
stand as follows : 

2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. " In Da- i Acts, ix. 23—25. " And after 
" mascus, the governor under " many days were fulfilled, the 
" Aretas the king, kept the city j " Jews took counsel to kill him ; 
" of the Damascenes [efpofye*] I " but their laying in wait was 
" with a garrison, desirous to ap- j "known of Saul, and they 
" prehend me ; and through a ■ " watched \jrapeT'/jpow~] the gates 
window in a basket \_h <ra,pydvy~\ " day and night to kill him ; then 
was I let down by the wall, ! " the disciples took him by 

" night, and let him down by 
" the wall [lv <ncvfih~\ in a 
" basket." 



;< and escaped his hands." 



Now if we be satisfied in general concerning these two 
ancient writings, that the one was not known to the writer 
of the other, or not consulted by him ; then the accord- 



No. II. & III. 2 COR. xi. 24. i. 1 . . . 57 

ances which may be pointed out between them, will admit 
of no solution so probable, as the attributing" of them to 
truth and reality, as to their common foundation. 



No. III. 

The opening of this epistle exhibits a connection with 
the history, which alone would satisfy my mind, that the 
epistle was written by St. Paul, and by St. Paul in the 
situation in which the history places him. Let it be re- 
membered, that in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, 
St. Paul is represented as driven away from Ephesus, or 
as leaving however Ephesus, in consequence of an uproar 
in that city, excited by some interested adversaries of the 
new religion. The account of the tumult is as follows : 
[xix. 28 . . .] " When they heard these sayings," viz. De- 
metrius's complaint of the danger to be apprehended from 
St. Paul's ministry to the established worship of the 
Ephesian goddess, " they were full of wrath, and cried 
" out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians ; and the 
" whole city was filled with confusion ; and having caught 
" Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's companions in travel, 
" they rushed with one accord into the theatre ; and when 
" Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples 
" suffered him not ; and certain of the chief of Asia, which 
" were his friends, sent unto him, desiring that he would 
" not adventure himself into the theatre. Some, there- 
" fore, cried one thing, and some another ; for the assern- 
" bly was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore 
" they were come together. And they drew Alexander 
" out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward ; 
" and Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have 
" made his defence unto the people ; but, when they knew 
" that he was a Jew, all, with one voice, about the space 
" of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
" sians. — And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called 
" unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and de- 
" parted for to go into Macedonia." When he was ar- 
rived in Macedonia, he wrote the Second Epistle to the 



58 HORiE PAULINiE. 

Corinthians, which is now before us ; and he begins his 
epistle in this wise : " Blessed be God, even the father of 
" our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the 
" God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tri- 
" bulation, that we may be able to comfort them which 
" are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we our- 
" selves are comforted of God. For, as the sufferings of 
" Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth 
" by Christ : and whether we be afflicted, it is for your 
" consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the en- 
" during of the same sufferings, which we also suffer ; or 
" whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and 
" salvation ; and our hope of you is steadfast, knowing 
" that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye 
" be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, 
" have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in 
" Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above 
" strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life ; but 
" we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we 
" should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth 
" the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and 
" doth deliver ; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver 
" us." Nothing could be more expressive of the circum- 
stances in which the history describes St. Paul to have 
been, at the time when the epistle purports to be written ; 
or rather, nothing could be more expressive of the sensa- 
tions arising from these circumstances, than this passage. 
It is the calm recollection of a mind emerged from the 
confusion of instant danger. It is that devotion and so- 
lemnity of thought, which follows a recent deliverance. 
There is just enough of particularity in the passage, to 
show that it is to be referred to the tumult at Ephesus : 
" We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our 
trouble which came to us in Asia." And there is nothing 
more ; no mention of Demetrius, of the seizure of St. 
Paul's friends, of the interference of the town clerk, of 
the occasion or nature of the danger which St. Paul had 
escaped, or even of the city where it happened ; in a word, 
no recital from which a suspicion could be conceived, 
either that the author of the epistle had made use of the 



No. III. 2 COR. i. 1 . . . 59 

narrative in the Acts ; or, on the other hand, that he had 
sketched the outline, which the narrative in the Acts only 
filled up. That the forger of an epistle, under the name 
of St. Paul, should borrow circumstances from a history 
of St. Paul then extant ; or, that the author of a history 
of St. Paul should gather materials from letters bearing 
St. Paul's name, may be credited : but I cannot believe 
that any forger whatever should fall upon an expedient so 
refined, as to exhibit sentiments adapted to a situation, 
and to leave his readers to seek out that situation from 
the history ; still less, that the author of a history should 
go about to frame facts and circumstances, fitted to supply 
the sentiments which he found in the letter. It may be 
said, perhaps, that it does not appear from the history, 
that any danger threatened St. Paul's life in the uproar 
at Ephesns, so imminent as that from which, in the epistle, 
he represents himself to have been delivered. This matter, 
it is true, is not stated by the historian in form ; but the 
personal danger of the apostle, we cannot doubt, must 
have been extreme, when the " whole city was rilled with 
confusion ;" when the populace had " seized his com- 
panions ;" when, in the distraction of his mind, he in- 
sisted upon " coming forth amongst them ;" when the 
Christians who were about him " would not suffer him ;" 
when " his friends, certain of the chief of Asia, sent to 
" him, desiring that he would not adventure himself in 
" the tumult ; " when, lastly, he was obliged to quit im- 
mediately the place and the country, "and, when the 
" tumult was ceased, to depart into Macedonia." All 
which particulars are found in the narration, and justify 
" St. Paul's own account, " that he was pressed out of 
" measure, above strength, insomuch that he despaired 
" even of life, that he had the sentence of death in him- 
" self;" t. e. that he looked upon himself as a man con- 
demned to die. 



60 HORiE PAULXNiE, 



No. IV. 



It has already been remarked [1 Cor. No. XL], that 
St. Paul's original intention was to have visited Corinth 
in his way to Macedonia : " I was minded to come unto 
" you before, and to pass by you into Macedonia." (2 Cor. i. 
15, 16.) It has also been remarked that he changed this 
intention, and ultimately resolved upon going through 
Macedonians^. Now upon this head there exists a cir- 
cumstance of correspondency between our epistle and the 
history, which is not very obvious to the reader's observ- 
ation ; but which, when observed, will be found, I think, 
close and exact. Which circumstance is this : that though 
the change of St. Paul's intention be expressly mentioned 
only in the Second Epistle, yet it appears, both from the 
history and from this Second Epistle, that the change had 
taken place before the writing of the First Epistle ; that it 
appears however from neither, otherwise than by an in- 
ference, unnoticed perhaps by almost every one who does 
not sit down professedly to the examination. 

First, then, how does this point appear from the his- 
tory ? In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, and the twenty- 
first verse, we are told, that " Paul purposed in the spirit, 
" when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to 
" go to Jerusalem. So he sent into Macedonia two of 
" them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; 
" but he himself stayed in Asia for a season." A short 
time after this, and evidently in pursuance of the same 
intention, Ave find (xx. 1, 2.) that " Paul departed from 
" Ephesus for to go into Macedonia ; and that, when he 
" had gone over those parts, he came into Greece." The 
resolution therefore of passing first through Macedonia, 
and from thence into Greece, was formed by St. Paul 
previously to the sending away of Timothy. The order 
in which the two countries are mentioned, shows the direc- 
tion of his intended route, " when he had passed through 
" Macedonia and Achaia." Timothy and Erastus, who 
were to precede him in his progress, were sent by him 
from Ephesus into Macedonia. He himself a short time 



No. IV. 2 COR. i. 15, 16... ii. 1 . . . 61 

afterwards, and, as hath been observed, evidently in con- 
tinuation and pursuance of the same design, " departed 
" for to go into Macedonia." If he had ever therefore 
entertained a different plan of his journey,- which is not 
hinted in the history, he must have changed that plan 
before this time. But, from the seventeenth verse of the 
fourth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, we 
discover, that Timothy had been sent away from Ephesus 
before that epistle was written : " For this cause have I 
" sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son." 
The change therefore of St. Paul's resolution, which was 
prior to the sending away of Timothy, was necessarily 
prior to the writing of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. 
Thus stands the order of dates, as collected from the 
history, compared with the First Epistle. Now let us 
inquire, secondly, how this matter is represented in the 
epistle before us. In the sixteenth verse of the first 
chapter of this epistle, St. Paul speaks of the intention 
which he had once entertained of visiting Achaia, in his 
way to Macedonia : "In this confidence I was minded 
" to come unto you before, that ye might have a second 
" benefit ; and to pass by you into Macedonia." After 
protesting, in the seventeenth verse, against any evil con- 
struction that might be put upon his laying aside of this 
intention, in the twenty-third verse he discloses the cause 
of it : " Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, 
" that, to spare you, I came not as yet unto Corinth." 
And then he proceeds as follows : " But I determined 
" this with myself, that I would not come again to you 
" in heaviness ; for if I make you sorry, who is he then 
" that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry 
" by me ? And I wrote the same unto you, lest when 
" I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I 
" ought to rejoice ; having confidence in you all, that 
" my joy is the joy of you all : for, out of much affliction 
" and anguish of heart, / wrote unto you with many 
" tears ; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might 
" know the love which I have more abundantly unto you ; 
" but if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me 
" but in part, that I may not overcharge you all. Suf- 



62 HORiE PAULINA. 

" ficient to such a man is this punishment, which was 
" inflicted of many." In this quotation, let the reader 
first direct his attention to the clause marked by Italics, 
" and I wrote this same unto you ;" and let him con- 
sider, whether from the context, and from the structure of 
the whole passage, it be not evident that this writing* was 
after St. Paul had " determined with himself, that he 
" would not come again to them in heaviness ? " whether, 
indeed, it was not in consequence of this determination, or 
at least with this determination upon his mind ? And, in 
the next place, let him consider, whether the sentence, 
" I determined this with myself, that I would not come 
" again to you in heaviness," do not plainly refer to that 
postponing of his visit, to which he had alluded in the 
verse but one before, when he said, " I call God for a 
" record upon my soul, that, to spare you, I came not as 
" yet to Corinth ;" and whether this be not the visit of 
which he speaks in the sixteenth verse, wherein he in- 
forms the Corinthians, " that he had been minded to pass 
" by them into Macedonia ; " but that, for reasons which 
argued no levity or fickleness in his disposition, he had 
been compelled to change his purpose. If this be so, then 
it follows that the writing here mentioned was posterior to 
the change of his intention. The only question, therefore, 
that remains will be, whether this writing relate to the 
letter which we now have under the title of the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians, or to some other letter not 
extant ? And upon this question I think Mr. Locke's ob- 
servation decisive ; namely, that the second clause marked 
in the quotation by Italics, 6( I wrote unto you with many 
" tears," and the first clause so marked, " I wrote this 
" same unto you," belong to one writing, whatever that 
was ; and that the second clause goes on to advert to a 
circumstance which is found in our present First Epistle 
to the Corinthians ; namely, the case and punishment of 
the incestuous person. Upon the whole then we see, that 
it is capable of being inferred from St. Paul's own words, 
in the long extract which we have quoted, that the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians was written after St. Paul had 
determined to postpone his journey to Corinth j in other 



No. IV. 2 COR. i. 15, 16... ii. 1 . . . 63 

words, that the change of his purpose, with respect to the 
course of his journey, though expressly mentioned only 
in the Second Epistle, had taken place before the writing 
of the First ; the point which we made out to be implied 
in the history, by the order of the events there recorded, 
and the allusions to those events in the First Epistle. 
Now this is a species of congruity of all others the most 
to be relied upon. It is not an agreement between two 
accounts of the same transaction, or between different 
statements of the same fact, for the fact is not stated ; 
nothing that can be called an account is given ; but it is 
the junction of two conclusions, deduced from independent 
sources, and deducible only by investigation and com- 
parison. 

This point, viz. the change of the route, being prior to 
the writing of the First Epistle, also falls in with, and 
accounts for, the manner in which he speaks in that epistle 
of his journey. His first intention had been, as he here 
declares, to " pass by them into Macedonia ; " that in- 
tention having been previously given up, he writes, in his 
First Epistle, " that he would not see them now by the 
" way," i. e. as he must have done upon his first plan ; 
" but that he trusted to tarry awhile with them, and pos- 
" sibly to abide, yea and winter with them." (1 Cor. xvi. 
5, 6.) It also accounts for a singularity in the text re- 
ferred to, which must strike every reader : " I will come 
" to you when I pass through Macedonia ; for I do pass 
" through Macedonia." The supplemental sentence, ' ' for 
" I do pass through Macedonia," imports that there had 
been some previous communication upon the subject of the 
journey ; and also that there had been some vacillation 
and indecisiveness in the apostle's plan ; both which we 
now perceive to have been the case. The sentence is as 
much as to say, " this is what I at last resolve upon." 
The expression " orav Maxeftoitiav ftieKQa)," is ambigu- 
ous ; it may denote either " when I pass, or when I shall 
"have passed, through Macedonia : " the considerations 
offered above fix it to the latter sense. Lastly, the point 
we have endeavoured to make out, confirms, or rather 
indeed is necessary to the support of a conjecture, which 



64 HOK/E PAULINA. 

forms the subject of a number [No. XL] in our observ- 
ations upon the First Epistle, that the insinuation of cer- 
tain of the church of Corinth, that he would come no more 
amongst them, was founded in some previous disappoint- 
ment of their expectations. 



No. V. 

But if St. Paul had changed his purpose before the 
writing of the First Epistle, why did he defer explaining 
himself to the Corinthians, concerning the reason of that 
change, until he wrote the Second ? This is a very fair 
question ; and we are able, I think, to return to it a sa- 
tisfactory answer. The real cause, and the cause at length 
assigned by St. Paul, for postponing his visit to Corinth, 
and not travelling by the route which he had at first de- 
signed, was the disorderly state of the Corinthian church 
at the time, and the painful severities which he should 
have found himself obliged to exercise, if he had come 
amongst them during the existence of these irregularities. 
He was willing therefore to try, before he came in person, 
what a letter of authoritative objurgation would do amongst 
them, and to leave time for the operation of the experi- 
ment. That was his scheme in writing the First Epistle. 
But it was not for him to acquaint them with the scheme. 
After the epistle had produced its effect (and to the utmost 
extent, as it should seem, of the apostle's hopes) ; when 
it had wrought in them a deep sense of their fault, and an 
almost passionate solicitude to restore themselves to the 
approbation of their teacher ; when Titus (vii. 6, 7» H«) 
had brought him intelligence " of their earnest desire, 
" their mourning, their fervent mind towards him," of 
their sorrow and their penitence ; " what carefulness, 
"what clearing of themselves, what indignation, what 
" fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what revenge," 
his letter, and the general concern occasioned by it, had 
excited amongst them ; he then opens himself fully upon 
the subject. The affectionate mind of the apostle is 
touched by this return of zeal and duty. He tells them 



No. VI. 2 COR. xi. 9. 65 

that he did not visit them at the time proposed, lest their 
meeting should have been attended with mutual grief ; 
and with grief to him embittered by the reflection, that he 
was giving pain to those, from whom alone he could re- 
ceive comfort : "I determined this with myself, that 1 
" would not come again to you in heaviness ; for if I 
" make you sorry, who is he that maketh me glad but 
" the same which is made sorry by me ?" (ii. 1, 2.) 
that he had written his former epistle to warn them before- 
hand of their fault, " lest when he came, he should have 
" sorrow of them of whom he ought to rejoice;" (ii. 3.) 
that he had the farther view, though perhaps unperceived 
by them, of making an experiment of their fidelity, " to 
" know the proof of them, whether they were obedient in 
" all things ;" (ii. 9.) This full discovery of his motive 
came very naturally from the apostle, after he had seen 
the success of his measures, but would not have been a 
seasonable communication before. The whole composes a 
train of sentiment and of conduct resulting from real situ- 
ation, and from real circumstance, and as remote as pos- 
sible from fiction or imposture. 



No. VI. 

Chap. xi. 9. " When I was present with you and 
" wanted, I was chargeable to no man ; for that which 
" was lacking to me, the brethren which came from 
" Macedonia supplied." The principal fact set forth in 
this passage, the arrival at Corinth of brethren from 
Macedonia during St. Paul's first residence in that city, 
is explicitly recorded, Acts, xviii. 1. 5 : " After these 
" things Paul departed from Athens, and came to 
" Corinth. . . And when Silas and Timotheus were come 
" from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in spirit, and 
" testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ." 



HOR^E PAULINiK 



No. VIL 2 COR. i. ig. 



The above quotation from the Acts proves that Silas 
and Timotheus were assisting to St. Paul in preaching the 
gospel at Corinth. With which correspond the words 
of the epistle (i. 19-): " For the Son of God, Jesus 
" Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by 
" me, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea and 
" nay, but in him was yea." I do admit that the cor- 
respondency, considered by itself, is too direct and ob- 
vious ; and that an impostor with the history before him 
might, and probably would, produce agreements of the 
same kind. But let it be remembered, that this reference 
is found in a writing, which from many discrepancies, and 
especially from those noted No. II., we may conclude, was 
not composed by any one who had consulted, and who 
pursued the history. Some observation also arises upon 
the variation of the name. We read Silas in the Acts, 
Silvanus in the epistle. The similitude of these two names, 
if they were the names of different persons, is greater than 
could easily have proceeded from accident ; I mean that 
it is not probable, that two persons placed in situations 
so much alike, should bear names so nearly resembling 
each other.* On the other hand, the difference of the 
name in the two passages negatives the supposition of the 
passages, or the account contained in them, being tran- 
scribed either from the other. 



No. VIII. 

Chap. ii. IS, 13. " When I came to Troas to preach 
" Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the 
" Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not 
" Titus, my brother ; but, taking my leave of them, I 
" went from thence into Macedonia." 

* That they were the same person is farther confirmed by 
1 Thess. i. 1. compared with Acts, xvii. 10, 



No. VIII. 2 COR. ii. 12, 13. 67 

To establish a conformity between this passage and the 
history, nothing more is necessary to be presumed, than 
that St. Paul proceeded [Acts, xx. 1.] from Ephesus to 
Macedonia, upon the same course by which he came back 
[vv. 6 . . 15.] from Macedonia to Ephesus, or rather to Mi- 
letus in the neighbourhood of Ephesus ; in other words, 
that, in his journey to the peninsula of Greece, he went and 
returned the same way. St. Paul is now in Macedonia, 
where he had lately arrived from Ephesus. Our quotation 
imports that in his journey he had stopped at Troas. Of 
this, the history says nothing, leaving us only the short 
account, " that Paul departed from Ephesus, for to go 
" into Macedonia." But the history says, that in his 
return from Macedonia to Ephesus, Paul sailed from 
Philippi to Troas ; and that, w T hen the disciples came 
together on the first day of the week to break bread, 
Paul preached unto them all night ; that from Troas he 
went by land to Assos ; from Assos, taking ship and 
coasting along the front of Asia Minor, he came by 
Mitylene to Miletus. Which account proves, first, that 
Troas lay in th* way by which St. Paul passed between 
Ephesus and Macedonia ; secondly, that he had disciples 
there. In one journey between these two places, the 
epistle, and in another journey between the same places, 
the history makes him stop at this city. Of the first 
journey he is made to say, " that a door was in that city 
" opened unto him of the Lord;" in the second we find 
disciples there collected around him, and the apostle ex- 
ercising his ministry, with, what was even in him, more 
than ordinary zeal and labour. The epistle therefore is in 
this instance confirmed, if not by the terms, at least by the 
probability of the history ; a species of confirmation by no 
means to be despised, because, as far as it reaches, it is 
evidently uncontrived. 

Grotius, I know, refers the arrival at Troas, to which 
the epistle alludes, to a different period, but I think very 
improbably ; for nothing appears to me more certain, than 
that the meeting wdth Titus, which St. Paul expected 
at Troas, was the same meeting which took place in Ma- 
cedonia, viz. upon Titus's coming out of Greece. In the 

f 2 



68 HORiE PAULINiE, 

quotation before us, he tells the Corinthians, " When I 
" came to Troas, T had no rest in my spirit, because I 
" found not Titus, my brother ; but, taking" my leave of 
" them, I went from thence into Macedonia." Then in 
the seventh chapter [vv. 5, 6.] he writes, " When we 
" were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but 
" we were troubled on every side ; without were fightings, 
" within were fears ; nevertheless God, that comforteth 
" those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming 
" of Titus." These two passages plainly relate to the 
same journey of Titus, in meeting with whom St. Paul 
had been disappointed at Troas, and rejoiced in Macedonia. 
And amongst other reasons which fix the former passage 
to the coming of Titus out of Greece, is the consideration, 
that it was nothing to the Corinthians that St. Paul did 
not meet with Titus at Troas, were it not that he was to 
bring intelligence from Corinth. The mention of the dis- 
appointment in this place, upon any other supposition, is 
irrelative. 



No. IX. 

Chap. xi. 24, 25. " Of the Jews five times received 
" I forty stripes save one ; thrice was I beaten with rods ; 
" once was I stoned ; thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a night 
" and a day I have been in the deep." 

These particulars cannot be extracted out of the Acts of 
the Apostles, which proves, as hath been already observed, 
that the epistle was not framed from the history ; yet they 
are consistent with it, which, considering how numerically 
circumstantial the account is, is more than could happen 
to arbitrary and independent fictions. When I say that 
these particulars are consistent with the history, I mean, 
first, that there is no article in the enumeration which is 
contradicted by the history ; secondly, that the history, 
though silent with respect to many of the facts here 
enumerated, has left space for the existence of these facts, 
consistent with the fidelity of its own narration. 

First, no contradiction is discoverable between the 






No. IX. 2 COR. xi. 24, 25. 69 

epistle and the history. When St. Paul says, thrice was 
I beaten with rods, although the history record only one 
beating with rods, viz. at Philippi, Acts, xvi. 22, 23, yet 
is there no contradiction. It is only the omission in one 
book of what is related in another. But had the history 
contained accounts of four beatings with rods, at the time 
of writing this epistle, in which St. Paul says that he had 
only suffered three, there would have been a contradiction 
properly so called. The same observation applies gene- 
rally to the other parts of the enumeration, concerning 
which the history is silent : but there is one clause in the 
quotation particularly deserving of remark ; because, when 
confronted with the history, it furnishes the nearest ap- 
proach to a contradiction, without a contradiction being 
actually incurred, of any I remember to have met with. 
" Once," saith St. Paul, " was I stoned." Does the 
history relate that St. Paul, prior to the writing of this 
epistle, had been stoned more than once ? The history 
mentions distinctly one occasion upon which St. Paul was 
stoned, viz. at Lystra in Lycaonia. " Then came thither 
" certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded 
" the people ; and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of 
" the city, supposing he had been dead ; " (xiv. 19.) And 
it mentions also another occasion [w. 5, 6.] in which " an 
" assault was made both of the Gentiles, and also of the 
" Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to 
" stone them ; but they were ware of it," the history pro- 
ceeds to tell us, " and fled unto Lystra and Derbe." This 
happened at Iconium, prior to the date of the epistle. Now 
had the assault been completed, had the history related 
that a stone was thrown, as it relates that preparations 
were made both by Jews and Gentiles to stone Paul and 
his companions, or even had the account of this transac- 
tion stopped, without going on to inform us that Paul and 
his companions were " aware of their danger, and fled," a 
contradiction between the history and the epistle would 
have ensued. Truth is necessarily consistent ; but it is 
scarcely possible that independent accounts, not having 
truth to guide them, should thus advance to the very brink 
of contradiction without falling into it. 

f 3 



70 HORiE PAULINA. 

Secondly, I say, that if the Acts of the Apostles be 
silent concerning many of the instances enumerated in 
the epistle, this silence may be accounted for from the 
plan and fabric of the history. The date of the epistle 
synchronises with the beginning of the twentieth chapter 
of the Acts. The part, therefore, of the history which 
precedes the twentieth chapter, is the only part in which 
can be found any notice of the persecutions to which St. 
Paul refers. Now it does not appear that the author of 
the history was with St. Paul until his departure from 
Troas, on his way to Macedonia, as related xvi. 10 ; or 
rather indeed the contrary appears. It is in this point of 
the history that the language changes. In the seventh 
and eighth verses of this chapter the third person is used. 
" After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into 
" Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not ; and they, 
" passing by Mysia, came to Troas ;" and the third per- 
son is in like manner constantly used throughout the 
foregoing part of the history. In the tenth verse of this 
chapter, the first person comes in : ' ' After Paul had seen 
" the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Mace- 
" donia ; assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us 
" to preach the gospel unto them." Now, from this time to 
the writing of the epistle, the history occupies four chap- 
ters : yet it is in these, if in any, that a regular or con- 
tinued account of the apostle's life is to be expected ; for 
how succinctly his history is delivered in the preceding 
part of the book, that is to say, from the time of his con- 
version to the time when the historian joined him at Troas, 
except the particulars of his conversion itself, which are 
related circumstantially, may be understood from the fol- 
lowing observations. 

The history of a period of sixteen years is comprised 
in less than three chapters ; and of these a material part is 
taken up with discourses. After his conversion, he con- 
tinued in the neighbourhood of Damascus, according to the 
history, for a certain considerable, though indefinite length 
of time, according to his own words (Gal. i. 18.), for 
three years ; of which no other account is given than 
this short one [A. ix. 20 — 23.], that " straightway he 



No. IX. 2 COR. xi. 24, 25. 71 

" preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son 
" of God ; that all that heard him were amazed, and 
" said, ' Is not this he that destroyed them which called 
" on this name in Jerusalem ? ' that he increased the more 
" in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at 
" Damascus ; and that, after many days were fulfilled, 
" the Jews took counsel to kill him." From Damascus 
he proceeded to Jerusalem ; and of his residence there 
[vv. 28, 29-] nothing more particular is recorded, than 
" that he was with the apostles, coming in and going out ; 
" that he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
" disputed against the Grecians who went about to slay 
" him." From Jerusalem, the history £v. 30.] sends him 
to his native city of Tarsus. It seems probable, from the 
order and disposition of the history, that St. Paul's stay 
at Tarsus was of some continuance ; for we hear nothing 
more of him, until, after a long apparent interval, and 
much interjacent narrative, Barnabas, desirous of Paul's 
assistance upon the enlargement of the Christian mission 
[xi. 2o.], " went to Tarsus for to seek him." We cannot 
doubt but that the new apostle had been busied in his 
ministry ; yet of what he did, or what he suffered, during 
this period, which may include three or four years, the 
history professes not to deliver any information. As 
Tarsus was situated upon the sea coast, and as, though 
Tarsus was his home, yet it is probable he visited from 
thence many other places, for the purpose of preaching 
the Gospel, it is not unlikely, that in the course of three 
or four years, he might undertake many short voyages to 
neighbouring countries, in the navigating of which we 
may be allowed to suppose that some of those disasters 
and shipwrecks befell him, to which he refers in the quota- 
tion before us, " thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and 
" a day I have been in the deep." This last clause I am 
inclined to interpret of his being obliged to take to an 
open boat, upon the loss of the ship, and his continuing 
out at sea in that dangerous situation, a night and a day. 
St. Paul is here recounting his sufferings, not relating 
miracles. From Tarsus Barnabas brought Paul to An- 
tioch, and there he remained a year ; but of the transact 

f 4 



72 HORiE PAULINA. 

tions of that year no other description is given than what 
is contained in the four last verses of the eleventh chapter. 
After a more solemn dedication to the ministry, Barnabas 
and Paul proceeded from Antioch to Cilicia, and from 
thence they sailed to Cyprus, of which voyage no par- 
ticulars are mentioned. Upon their return from Cyprus, 
they made a progress together through the Lesser Asia ; 
and though two remarkable speeches be preserved, and a 
few incidents in the course of their travels circumstantially 
related, yet is the account of this progress, upon the 
whole, given professedly with conciseness : for instance, 
at Iconium it is said that they abode a long time ; [xiv. 3.] 
yet of this long abode, except concerning the manner in 
which they were driven away, no memoir is inserted in 
the history. The whole is wrapped up in one short 
summary, " they spake boldly in the Lord, which gave 
" testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs 
" and wonders to be done by their hands/' Having 
completed their progress, the two apostles returned to 
Antioch, " and there they abode long time with the 
" disciples ;" [v. 28. 2 Here we have another large por- 
tion of time passed over in silence. To this succeeded a 
journey to Jerusalem, upon a dispute which then much 
agitated the Christian church, concerning the obligation of 
the law of Moses. When the object of that journey was 
completed, Paul proposed to Barnabas to go again and 
visit their brethren in every city where they had preached 
the word of the Lord. The execution of this plan carried 
our apostle through Syria, Cilicia, and many provinces of 
the Lesser Asia ; yet is the account of the whole journey 
dispatched in four verses of the sixteenth chapter. 

If the Acts of the Apostles had undertaken to exhibit 
regular annals of St. Paul's ministry, or even any con- 
tinued account of his life, from his conversion at Damascus 
to his imprisonment at Rome, I should have thought the 
omission of the circumstances referred to in our epistle, a 
matter of reasonable objection. But when it appears, 
from the history itself, that large portions of St. Paul's 
life were either passed over in silence, or only slightly 
touched upon, and that nothing more than certain detached 



No. X. 2 COR. iii. 1. 73 

incidents and discourses are related ; when we observe 
also, that the author of the history did not join our apostle's 
society till a few years before the writing of the epistle, at 
least that there is no proof in the history that he did so ; 
in comparing the history with the epistle, we shall not be 
surprised by the discovery of omissions ; we shall ascribe 
it to truth that there is no contradiction. 



No. X. 

Chap. iii. 1. " Do we begin again to commend our- 
" selves ; or need we, as some others, epistles of com- 
" mendation to you ?" 

" As some others." Turn to Acts, xviii. 27, and you 
will find that, a short time before the writing of this 
epistle, Apollos had gone to Corinth with letters of com- 
mendation from the Ephesian Christians ; " and when 
" Apollos was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren 
" wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him." Here 
the words of the epistle bear the appearance of alluding to 
some specific instance, and the history supplies that in- 
stance ; it supplies at least an instance as apposite as 
possible to the terms which the apostle uses, and to the 
date and direction of the epistle, in which they are found. 
The letter which Apollos carried from Ephesus, was 
precisely the letter of commendation which St. Paul 
meant ; and it was to Achaia, of which Corinth was the 
capital, and indeed to Corinth itself (Acts, xix. 1.), that 
Apollos carried it ; and it was about two years before the 
writing of this epistle. If St. Paul's words be rather 
thought to refer to some general usage which then obtained 
among Christian churches, the case of Apollos exemplifies 
that usage ; and affords that species of confirmation to the 
epistle, which arises from seeing the manners of the age, 
in which it purports to be written, faithfully preserved. 



74 HORiE PAULINA. 



No. XL 



Chap. xiii. 1. " This is the third time I am coming 
" to you (rpirov tovtq ep%ofjLOLi')" 

Do not these words import that the writer had been at 
Corinth twice before ? yet, if they import this, they over- 
set every congruity we have been endeavouring to esta- 
blish. The Acts of the Apostles [xviii. 1 ; xx. % 3.] 
record only two journeys of St. Paul to Corinth. We 
have all along supposed, what every mark of time except 
this expression indicates, that the epistle was written 
between the first and second of these journeys. If St. 
Paul had been already twice at Corinth, this supposition 
must be given up ; and every argument or observation 
which depends upon it, falls to the ground. Again, the 
Acts of the Apostles not only record no more than two 
journeys of St. Paul to Corinth, but do not allow us to 
suppose that more than two such journeys could be made 
or intended by him within the period which the history 
comprises ; for, from his first journey into Greece to his 
first imprisonment at Rome, with which the history con- 
cludes, the apostle's time is accounted for. If, therefore, 
the epistle was written after the second journey to 
Corinth, and upon the view and expectation of a third, it 
must have been written after his first imprisonment at 
Rome, t. e. after the time to which the history extends. 
When I first read over this epistle with the particular 
view of comparing it with the history, which I chose to do 
without consulting any commentary whatever, I own that 
I felt myself confounded by this text. It appeared to 
contradict the opinion, which I had been led by a great 
variety of circumstances to form, concerning the date and 
occasion of the epistle. At length, however, it occurred to 
my thoughts to inquire, whether the passage did ne- 
cessarily imply that St. Paul had been at Corinth twice ; 
or whether, when he says " this is the third time I am 
coming to you," he might mean only that this was the 
third time that he was ready, that he was prepared, that 
he intended to set out upon his journey to Corinth. I re- 



No. XL 2 COR. xiii. 1. 75 

collected that he had once before this purposed to visit 
Corinth, and had been disappointed in his purpose ; which 
disappointment forms the subject of much apology and 
protestation, in the first and second chapters of the epistle. 
Now, if the journey in which he had been disappointed 
was reckoned by him one of the times in which " he was 
" coming to them," then the present would be the third 
time, i. e. of his being' ready and prepared to come ; 
although he had been actually at Corinth only once before. 
This conjecture being taken up, a farther examination of 
the passage and the epistle produced proofs which placed 
it beyond doubt. " This is the third time I am coming 
" to you:" in the verse following these words he adds, 
" I told you before, and foretel you, as if I were present 
" the second time ; and being absent, now I write to 
" them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, 
" that if I come again, I will not spare." In this verse 
the apostle is declaring beforehand what he would do in 
his intended visit : his expression, therefore, "as if I were 
11 present the second time," relates to that visit. But, if 
his future visit would only make him present amongst 
them a second time, it follows that he had been already 
there but once. Again, in the fifteenth verse of the first 
chapter, he tells them, " In this confidence, I was minded 
" to come unto you before, that you might have a second 
" benefit." Why a second, and not a third benefit ? why 
osuTspav, and not rpirr^ ;/ap ji>, if the rpirov sp%o[xou, in 
the fifteenth chapter, meant a third visit ? for, though the 
visit in the first chapter be that visit in which he was dis- 
appointed, yet, as it is evident from the epistle that he 
had never been at Corinth from the time of the disap- 
pointment to the time of writing the epistle, it follows 
that if it was only a second visit in which he was disap- 
pointed then, it could only be a second visit which he pro- 
posed now. But the text which I think is decisive of the 
question, if any question remain upon the subject, is the 
fourteenth verse of the twelfth chapter : " Behold, the 
third time I am ready to come to you." (T&oi/, rpirov 
[touto] arol[j.a)g s%co IX#=*V.) It is very clear that the rplrov 
erol[AO)g s%co sXdsTv of the twelfth chapter, and the rpirov 



76 HOR^E PAULINA. 

TovTo spxofxai of the thirteenth chapter, are equivalent 
expressions, were intended to convey the same meaning", 
and to relate to the same journey. The comparison of 
these phrases gives us St. Paul's own explanation of his 
own words ; and it is that very explanation which we are 
contending for, viz. that rplrou rouro sp%ofj.ou does not 
mean that he was coming a third time, but that this was 
the third time he was in readiness to come, rpirov sro^cog 
%Xaiv. I do not apprehend that after this it can be neces- 
sary to call to our aid the reading of the Alexandrian 
manuscript, which gives £Tol[xcog s%(o sX$s7v in the thir- 
teenth chapter as well as in the twelfth ; or of the Syriac 
and Coptic versions, which follow that reading ; because 
1 allow that this reading, besides not being sufficiently 
supported by ancient copies, is probably paraphrastical, 
and has been inserted for the purpose of expressing more 
unequivocally the sense, which the shorter expression rpirou 
tovto epxopou was supposed to carry. Upon the whole, 
the matter is sufficiently certain ; nor do I propose it as a 
new interpretation of the text which contains the difficulty, 
for the same was given by Grotius long ago ; but I 
thought it the clearest way of explaining the subject, to 
describe the manner in which the difficulty, the solution, 
and the proofs of that solution, successively presented 
themselves to my inquiries. Now, in historical re- 
searches, a reconciled inconsistency becomes a positive 
argument. First, because an impostor generally guards 
against the appearance of inconsistency ; and secondly, 
because, when apparent inconsistencies are found, it is 
seldom that any thing but truth renders them capable of 
reconciliation. The existence of the difficulty proves the 
want or absence of that caution, which usually accom- 
panies the consciousness of fraud ; and the solution 
proves, that it is not the collision of fortuitous propositions 
which we have to deal with, but that a thread of truth 
winds through the whole, which preserves every circum- 
stance in its place. 



No. XII. 2 COR. x. 14—16. 77 



No. XII. 

Chap. x. 14 — 16. " We are come as far as to you 
" also, in preaching the Gospel of Christ ; not boasting 
" of things without our measure, that is, of other men's 
" labours ; but having hope, when your faith is increased, 
" that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule 
" abundantly, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond 
" you." 

This quotation affords an indirect, and therefore unsus- 
picious, but at the same time a distinct and indubitable 
recognition of the truth and exactness of the history. I 
consider it to be implied by the words of the quotation, 
that Corinth was the extremity of St. Paul's travels 
hitherto. He expresses to the Corinthians his hope, that 
in some future visit he might " preach the Gospel to the 
"regions beyond them;" which imports that he had 
not hitherto proceeded " beyond them," but that Corinth 
was as yet the farthest point or boundary of his travels. 
Now, how is St. Paul's first journey into [that more 
southern part of] Europe, which was the only one he 
had taken before the writing of this epistle, traced out in 
the history ? Sailing from Asia, he landed at Philippi ; 
from Philippi, traversing the eastern coast of the peninsula, 
he passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessa- 
lonica ; from thence through Berea to Athens, and from 
Athens to Corinth, where he stopped ; and from whence, 
after a residence of a year and a half, he sailed back into 
Syria. So that Corinth was the last place which he 
visited in the peninsula ; was the place from which he 
returned into Asia ; and was, as such, the boundary and 
limit of his progress. He could not have said the same 
thing, viz. " I hope hereafter to visit the regions beyond 
" you," in an epistle to the Philippians, or in an epistle 
to the Thessalonians, inasmuch as he must be deemed to 
have already visited the regions beyond them, having pro- 
ceeded from those cities to other parts of Greece. But 
from Corinth he returned home ; every part, therefore, 
beyond that city, might properly be said, as it is said in 



78 HORM PAULINA. 

the passage before us, to be unvisited. Yet is this pro- 
priety the spontaneous effect of truth, and produced with- 
out meditation or design. 

[When St. Paul at Philippi wrote thus to Corinth (and very 
soon after his arrival there from Troas he certainly would write) 
to testify the satisfaction which the tidings brought by Titus from 
the church of Corinth afforded to his mind, 2 Cor. vii. 6, it is 
most probable that the circumstances which invited him to advance 
westward as far as Illyricum, and to preach the Gospel in those 
parts, A. xx. 1, 2, had not yet occurred. But from No. IV., on 
Romans, xv. 19, this subsequent part of the Apostle's history may 
be now considered as clearly made out.] 



CHAP. V. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

No. I. 

The argument of this epistle in some measure proves its 
antiquity. It will hardly be doubted, but that it was 
written whilst the dispute concerning the circumcision of 
Gentile converts was fresh in men's minds ; for, even 
supposing it to have been a forgery, the only credible 
motive that can be assigned for the forgery, was to bring 
the name and authority of the Apostle into this con- 
troversy. No design could be so insipid, or so unlikely 
to enter into the thoughts of any man, as to produce an 
epistle written earnestly and pointedly upon one side of 
a controversy, when the controversy itself was dead, and 
the question no longer interesting to any description of 
readers whatever. Now the controversy concerning the 
circumcision of the Gentile Christians was of such a 
nature, that, if it arose at all, it must have arisen in the 
beginning of Christianity. As Judsea was the scene of 
the Christian history ; as the author and preachers of 
Christianity were Jews ; as the religion itself acknow- 
ledged and was founded upon the Jewish religion, in 



No. I. GAL AT. 79 

contradistinction to every other religion then professed 
amongst mankind ; it was not to be wondered at, that 
some of its teachers should carry it out in the world rather 
as a sect and modification of Judaism, than as a separate, 
original revelation ; or that they should invite their pro- 
selytes to those observances, in which they lived them- 
selves. This was likely to happen : but if it did not 
happen at first ; if, whilst the religion was in the hands 
of Jewish teachers, no such claim was advanced, no such 
condition was attempted to be imposed; it is not probable 
that the doctrine would be started, much less that it should 
prevail in any future period. I likewise think, that those 
pretensions of Judaism were much more likely to be in- 
sisted upon, whilst the Jews continued a nation, than 
after their fall and dispersion ; whilst Jerusalem and the 
temple stood, than after the destruction brought upon 
them by the Roman arms, the fatal cessation of the sacri- 
fice and the priesthood, the humiliating loss of their 
country, and, with it, of the great rites and symbols of 
their institution. It should seem, therefore, from the 
nature of the subject, and the situation of the parties, that 
this controversy was carried on in the interval between the 
preaching of Christianity to the Gentiles, and the invasion 
of Titus ; and that our present epistle, which was un- 
doubtedly intended to bear a part in this controversy, 
must be referred to the same period. 

But, again, the epistle supposes that certain designing 
adherents of the Jewish law had crept into the churches 
of Galatia ; and had been endeavouring, and but too suc- 
cessfully, to persuade the Galatic converts, that they had 
been taught the new religion imperfectly and at second 
hand ; that the founder of their church himself possessed 
only an inferior and deputed commission, the seat of 
truth and authority being in the apostles and elders of 
Jerusalem ; moreover, that whatever he might profess 
amongst them, he had himself at other times, and in 
other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. — 
The epistle is unintelligible without supposing all this. 
Referring therefore to this, as to what had actually passed, 
we find St. Paul treating so unjust an attempt to under- 



80 HOR^E PAULINA. 

mine his credit, and to introduce amongst his converts a 
doctrine which he had uniformly reprobated, in terms of 
great asperity and indignation. And in order to refute 
the suspicions which had been raised concerning the 
fidelity of his teaching, as well as to assert the inde- 
pendency and divine original of his mission, we find him 
appealing to the history of his conversion, to his conduct 
under it, to the maimer in which he had conferred with 
the apostles when he met with them at Jerusalem ; al- 
leging, that so far was his doctrine from being derived 
from them, or they from exercising any superiority over 
him, that they had simply assented to what he had already 
preached amongst the Gentiles, and which preaching was 
communicated not by them to him, but by himself to 
them ; that he had maintained the liberty of the Gentile 
church, by opposing, upon one occasion, an apostle to the 
face, when the timidity of his behaviour seemed to en- 
danger it ; that from the first, that all along, that to that 
hour, he had constantly resisted the claims of Judaism ; 
and that the persecutions which he daily underwent, at the 
hands or by the instigation of the Jews, and of which 
he bore in his person the marks and scars, might have 
been avoided by him, if he had consented to employ his 
labours in bringing, through the medium of Christianity, 
converts over to the Jewish institution, for then " would 
" the offence of the cross have ceased." Now an im- 
postor w T ho had forged the epistle for the purpose of 
producing St. Paul's authority in the dispute, which, 
as hath been observed, is the only credible motive that 
can be assigned for the forgery, might have made the 
apostle deliver his opinion upon the subject, in strong 
and decisive terms, or might have put his name to a train 
of reasoning and argumentation upon that side of the 
question, which the imposture was intended to recom- 
mend. I can allow the possibility of such a scheme as 
that. But for a writer, with this purpose in view, to 
feign a series of transactions supposed to have passed 
amongst the Christians of Galatia, and then to counterfeit 
expressions of anger and resentment excited by these 
transactions ; to make the apostle travel back into his 



No. II. GALAT. 81 

own history, and into a recital of various passages of his life, 
some indeed directly, but others obliquely, and others even 
obscurely bearing upon the point in question ; in a word, to 
substitute narrative for argument, expostulation and com- 
plaint for dogmatic positions and controversial reasoning, 
in a writing properly controversial, and of which the aim 
and design was to support one side of a much agitated ques- 
tion — is a method so intricate, and so unlike the methods 
pursued by all other impostors, as to require very flagrant 
proofs of imposition to induce us to believe it to be one. 



No. II. 

In this number I shall endeavour to prove, 

i. That the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Acts of 
the Apostles, were written without any communication 
with each other. 

ii. That the epistle, though written without any com- 
munication with the history, by recital, implication, or 
reference, bears testimony to many of the facts contained 
in it. 

I. The epistle and the Acts of the Apostles were written 
without any communication with each other. 

To judge of this point, we must examine those passages 
in each, which describe the same transaction ; for if the 
author of either writing derived his information from the 
account which he had seen in the other, when he came to 
speak of the same transaction, he would follow that ac- 
count. The history of St. Paul, at Damascus, as read in 
the Acts, and as referred to by the epistle, forms an 
instance of this sort. According to the Acts, Paul (after 
his conversion) was certain days with the " disciples which 
*' were at Damascus ; and straightway he preached Christ 
" in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all 
" that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he 
" that destroyed them which called on this name in Jeru- 
" salem, and came hither for that intent, that he might 
" bring them bound unto the chief priests ? But Saul 
" increased the more in strength, and confounded the 

G 



82 HORiE PAULINiE. 

"Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is 
" very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, 
" the Jews took counsel to kill him ; but their laying await 
" was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day 
" and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by 
" night, and let him down by the wall in a basket ; and 
i( when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join 
" himself to the disciples." Acts, ix. 19 — 26. 

According to the epistle, [i. 15 . . 18.] " When it 
" pleased God, who separated me from my mother's 
" womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in 
" me, that I might preach him among the heathen ; im- 
i6 mediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither 
" went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles 
" before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned again 
" unto Damascus : then, after three years, I went up to 
" Jerusalem. 55 

Beside the difference observable in the terms and ge- 
neral complexion of these two accounts, " the journey 
" into Arabia, 5 ' mentioned in the epistle, and omitted in 
the history, affords full proof that there existed no cor- 
respondence between these writers. If the narrative in 
the Acts had been made up from the epistle, it is impos- 
sible that this journey should have been passed over in 
silence ; if the epistle had been composed out of what the 
author had read of St. Paul's history in the Acts, it is 
unaccountable that it should have been inserted.* 

The journey to Jerusalem related in the second chapter 
[v. 1.] of the epistle (" Then, fourteen years after, I 
" went up again to Jerusalem") supplies another example 
of the same kind. Either this was the journey described 
in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, when Paul and Bar- 

* N. B. The Acts of the Apostles simply inform us that St. 
Paul left Damascus in order to go to Jerusalem, " after many days 
" were fulfilled." If any one doubt whether the words " many 
" days" could be intended to express a period which included a 
term of three years, he will find a complete instance of the same 
phrase used with the same latitude in the first book of Kings, ii. 
38,39: "And Shimei dwelt at Jerusalem many days; and it 
" came to pass, at the end of three years, that two of the servants of 
" Shimei ran away." 



No. II. GAL. i. 15.. 18. ii. 1. ii. 11.... 83 

nabas were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem, to consult 
the apostles and elders upon the question of the Gentile 
converts ; or it was some journey of which the history- 
does not take notice. If the first opinion be followed, the 
discrepancy in the two accounts is so considerable, that it 
is not without difficulty they can be adapted to the same 
transaction : so that, upon this supposition, there is no 
place for suspecting that the writers were guided or as- 
sisted by each other. If the latter opinion be preferred, 
we have then a journey to Jerusalem, and a conference 
with the principal members of the church there, circum- 
stantially related in the epistle, and entirely omitted in 
the Acts : and we are at liberty to repeat the observation, 
which we before made, that the omission of so material a 
fact in the history is inexplicable, if the historian had read 
the epistle ; and that the insertion of it in the epistle, if 
the writer derived his information from the history, is not 
less so. 

St. Peter's visit to Antioch, [Gal. ii. 11. . . .] during 
which the dispute arose between him and St. Paul, is not 
mentioned in the Acts. 

If we connect with these instances the general ob- 
servation, that no scrutiny can discover the smallest trace 
of transcription or imitation either in things or words, we 
shall be fully satisfied in this part of our case ; namely, 
that the two records, be the facts contained in them true 
or false, come to our hands from independent sources. 

ii. Secondly, I say that the epistle, thus proved to have 
been written without any communication with the history, 
bears testimony to a great variety of particulars contained 
in the history. 

1. St. Paul, in the early part of his life, had addicted 
himself to the study of the Jewish religion, and was dis- 
tinguished by his zeal for the institution and for the tra- 
ditions which had been incorporated with it. Upon this 
part of his character the history makes St. Paul speak 
thus : " I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in 
" Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at 
ii the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the per- 

G °2 



84 HORiE PAULINiE. 

" feet manner of the law of the fathers ; and was zealous 
" towards God, as ye all are this day." Acts, xxii. 3. 

The epistle as follows : " I profited in the Jews' re- 
" ligion above many my equals in mine own nation, being 
" more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fa- 
" thers." i. 14. 

2. St. Paul, before his conversion, had been a fierce 
persecutor of the new sect. " As for Saul, he made 
" havoc of the church ; entering into every house, and 
" haling men and women, committed them to prison." 
Acts, viii. 3. 

This is the history of St. Paul, as delivered in the Acts ; 
in the recital of his own history in the epistle, " Ye have 
" heard," says he, " of my conversation in times past in 
" the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I perse- 
" cuteel the church of God." i. 13. 

3. St. Paul was miraculously converted on his way to 
Damascus. " And as he journeyed, he came near to Da- 
" mascus : and suddenly there shined round about him a 
" light from heaven ; and he fell to the earth, and heard 
" a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
" thou me ? And he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And 
" the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it 
" is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, 
" trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou 
" have me to do?" Acts, ix. 3 — 6. With this compare 
the epistle, i. 15 — 17 *. " When it pleased God, who se- 
" parated me from my mother's womb, and called me by 
" his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach 
" him among the heathen ; immediately 1 conferred not 
" with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem 
" to them which were apostles before me; but I went 
" into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus." 

In this quotation from the epistle, I desire it to be re- 
marked how incidentally it appears, that the affair passed 
at Damascus. In what may be called the direct part of 
the account, no mention is made of the place of his con- 
version at all ; a casual expression at the end, and an 
expression brought in for a different purpose, alone fixes 
it to have been at Damascus : " I returned again to Da- 



No. II. GAL. i. 13... 24. 85 

" mascus." Nothing can be more like simplicity and 
undesignedness than this is. It also draws the agreement 
between the two quotations somewhat closer, to observe 
that they both state St. Paul to have preached the gospel 
immediately upon his call : " And straightway he preached 
" Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." 
Acts, ix. 20. " When it pleased God to reveal his Son 
" in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, 
" immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. 55 
Gal. i. 1.5. 

4. The course of the apostle's travels after his con- 
version was this : — He went from Damascus to Jeru- 
salem, and from Jerusalem into Syria and Cilicia. " At 
" Damascus the disciples took him by night, and let him 
" down by the wall in a basket ; and when Saul was 
" come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the 
" disciples." (Acts, ix. 25.) Afterwards, " when the 
" brethren knew the conspiracy formed against him at 
" Jerusalem, they brought him down to Csesarea, and 
" sent him forth to Tarsus, a city in Cilicia." (ix. 30.) 
In the epistle, [i. IS. 21.] St. Paul gives the following 
brief account of his proceedings within the same period : 
" After three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, 
" and abode with him fifteen clays ; afterwards I came 
" into the regions of Syria and Cilicia." The history 
had told us that Paul passed from Ca?sarea to Tarsus : if 
he took this journey by land, it would carry him through 
Syria into Cilicia ; and he would come, after his visit at 
Jerusalem, " into the regions of Svria and Cilicia," in 
the very order in which he mentions them in the epistle. 
This supposition of his going from Caesarea to Tarsus hy 
land, clears up also another point. It accounts for what 
St. Paul says in the same place concerning trie churches 
of Judea [i. 21 . . 24.] : " Afterwards I came into the 
" regions of Svria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face 
" unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ : but 
" they had heard only that he which persecuted us in 
" times past, now preacheth the faith which once he de- 
" stroyed ; and they glorified God in me." Upon which 
passage I observe, first, that what is here said of the 

g 3 



86 HORiE PAULINJE. 

churches of Judea, is spoken in connection with his jour- 
ney into the regions of Syria and Cilicia : Secondly, that 
the passage itself has little significancy, and that the con- 
nection is inexplicable, unless St. Paul went through 
Judea * (though probably by a hasty journey) at the time 
that he came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Sup- 
pose him to have passed by land from Csesarea to Tarsus, 
all this, as hath been observed, would be precisely true. 

5. Barnabas was with Paul at Antioch. " Then de- 
" parted Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul ; and when 
" he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And 
4 'it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled them- 
" selves with the church." Acts, xi. 25, 26. Again, and 
upon another occasion, " they (Paul and Barnabas) sailed 
" to Antioch ; and there they continued a long time with 
" the disciples." xiv. 26. 

Now what says the epistle ? " When Peter was come 
" to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was 
" to be blamed ; and the other Jews dissembled likewise 
"with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried 
" away with their dissimulation." ii. 11. 13. 

6. The stated residence of the apostles was at Jeru- 
salem. " At that time there was a great persecution 
" against the church which was at Jerusalem ; and they 
" were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of 
" Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." (Acts,viii. 1.) 
" They (the Christians at Antioch) determined that Paul 
" and Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem, unto the 
" apostles and elders, about this question/' (Acts, xv. 2.) 
With these accounts agrees the declaration in the epistle : 
" Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were 
" apostles before me :" (i. 17.) for this declaration im- 
plies, or rather assumes it to be known, that Jerusalem 
was the place where the apostles were to be met with. 

* Dr. Doddridge thought that the Csesarea here mentioned was 
not the celebrated city of that name upon the Mediterranean sea, 
but Csesarea Philippi, near the borders of Syria, which lies in a 
much more direct line from Jerusalem to Tarsus than the other. 
The objection to this, Dr. Benson remarks, is, that Caesarea, with- 
out any addition, usually denotes Csesarea Palestine. 

[For the remark on an apparent oversight of Dr. Paley here, in 
point of geography, vide the close of this Chapter.] 



No. II. GAL. ii. 11. 13. i. 17. 19. 87 

7. There were at Jerusalem two apostles, or at the 
least two eminent members of the church, of the name of 
James. This is directly inferred from the Acts of the 
Apostles, which in the second verse of the twelfth chapter 
relates the death of James, the brother of John ; and yet 
in the fifteenth chapter, and in a subsequent part of the 
history, records a speech delivered by James in the as- 
sembly of the apostles and elders. It is also strongly 
implied by the form of expression used in the epistle : 
[i. 19.] " Other apostles saw I none, save James, the 
<c Lord's brother ;" t. e. to distinguish him from James 
the brother of John. 

To us, who have been long conversant in the Christian 
history, as contained in the Acts of the Apostles, these 
points are obvious and familiar ; nor do we readily ap- 
prehend any greater difficulty in making them appear in 
a letter purporting to have been written by St. Paul, than 
there is in introducing them into a modern sermon. But, 
to judge correctly of the argument before us, we must 
discharge this knowledge from our thoughts. We must 
propose to ourselves the situation of an author who sat 
down to the writing of the epistle without having seen 
the history ; and then the concurrences we have deduced 
will be deemed of importance. They will at least be 
^ taken for separate confirmations of the several facts ; and 
not only of these particular facts, but of the general truth 
of the history. 

For what is the rule with respect to corroborative tes- 
timony which prevails in courts of justice, and which pre- 
vails only because experience has proved that it is an 
useful guide to truth ? A principal witness in a cause 
delivers his account : his narrative, in certain parts of it, 
is confirmed by witnesses who are called afterwards. The 
credit derived from their testimony belongs not only to 
the particular circumstances in which the auxiliary wit- 
nesses agree with the principal witness, but in some mea- 
sure to the whole of his evidence ; because it is improbable 
that accident or fiction should draw a line which touched 
upon truth in so many points. 

In like manner, if two records be produced, manifestly 

G 4i 



88 HORJE PAULINA. 

independent, that is, manifestly written without any par- 
ticipation of intelligence, an agreement between them, 
even in few and slight circumstances (especially if, from 
the different nature and design of the writings, few points 
only of agreement, and those incidental, could be expected 
to occur) would add a sensible weight to the authority of 
both, in every part of their contents. 

The same rule is applicable to history, with at least as 
much reason as to any other species of evidence. 



No. III. 

But although the references to various particulars in 
the epistle, compared with the direct account of the same 
particulars in the history, afford a considerable proof of 
the truth not only of these particulars, but of the narrative 
which contains them ; yet they do not show, it will be 
said, that the epistle was written by St. Paul : for ad- 
mitting (what seems to have been proved) that the writer, 
whoever he was, had no recourse to the Acts of the 
Apostles, yet many of the facts referred to, such as 
St. Paul's miraculous conversion, his change from a viru- 
lent persecutor to an indefatigable preacher, his labours 
amongst the Gentiles, and his zeal for the liberties of the 
Gentile church, were so notorious, as to occur readily to 
the mind of any Christian, who should choose to personate 
his character, and counterfeit his name : it was only to 
write what everybody knew. Now I think that this sup- 
position—viz. that the epistle was composed upon general 
information, and the general publicity of the facts alluded 
to, and that the author did no more than weave into his 
work what the common fame of the Christian church had 
reported to his ears — is repelled by the particularity of 
the recitals and references. This particularity is observ- 
able in the following instances ; in perusing which, I 
desire the reader to reflect, whether they exhibit the lan- 
guage of a man who had nothing but general reputation 
to proceed upon, or of a man actually speaking of himself 
and of his own history, and consequently of things con- 



No. III. GAL. i. 17. .19. 89 

cerning which he possessed a clear, intimate, and circum- 
stantial knowledge. 

1. The history, in giving an account of St. Paul after 
his conversion, relates " that, after many days," effecting, 
by the assistance of the disciples, his escape from Da- 
mascus, " he proceeded to Jerusalem." (Acts, ix. 25.) 
The epistle, speaking of the same period, makes St. Paul 
say that " he went into Arabia," that he returned again 
to Damascus, that after three years he went up to Jeru- 
salem, i. 17j 18. 

2. The history relates that, when Saul was come from 
Damascus, " he was with the disciples coming in and 
" going out." (Acts, ix. 28.) The epistle, describing the 
same journey, tells us u that he went up to Jerusalem to 
" see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days." i. 18. 

3. The history relates that, when Paul was come to 
Jerusalem, " Barnabas took him and brought him to the 
apostles." (Acts, ix. 27.) The epistle, u that he saw 
" Peter ; but other of the apostles saw he none, save 
" James, the Lord's brother." i. 19. 

Now this is as it should be. The historian delivers his 
account in general terms, as of facts to which he was not 
present. The person who is the subject of that account, 
when he comes to speak of these facts himself, particu- 
larizes time, names, and circumstances. 

4. The like notation of places, persons, and dates, is 
met with in the account of St. Paul's journey to Jeru- 
salem, given in the second chapter of the epistle. It was 
fourteen years after his conversion ; it was in company 
with Barnabas and Titus ; it was then that he met with 
James, Cephas, and John ; it was then also that it was 
agreed amongst them, that they should go to the circum- 
cision, and he unto the Gentiles. 

5. The dispute with Peter, which occupies the sequel 
of the second chapter, is marked with the same particu- 
larity. It was at Antioch ; it was after certain came 
from James ; it was whilst Barnabas was there, who was 
carried away by their dissimulation. These examples ne- 
gative the insinuation, that the epistle presents nothing 
but indefinite allusions to public facts. 



90 HOR^E FAULINiE. 



No. IV. 

Chap. iv. 11 — 16. "lam afraid of you, lest I have 
" bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech 
" you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye have not 
" injured me at all. Ye know how, through infirmity of 
" the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first ; 
" and my temptation, which teas in my flesh, ye despised 
" not, nor rejected ; but received me as an angel of God, 
" even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness 
" ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been 
" possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, 
" and have given them to me. Am 1 therefore become 
" your enemy, because I tell you the truth ?" 

With this passage compare £ Cor. xii. 1 — 9 • " It is 
" not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come 
" to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man 
" in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, 
" I cannot tell ; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell ; 
" God knoweth) ; such an one caught up to the third 
(( heaven : and I knew such a man (whether in the body 
" or out of the body, I cannot tell ; God knoweth), how 
" that he was caught up into paradise, and heard un- 
" speakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to 
" utter. Of such an one will I glory, yet of myself I 
" will not glory, but in mine infirmities: for, though I 
" would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool ; for I will 
" say the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man should 
" think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or 
" that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted 
" above measure, through the abundance of the revela- 
" tions, there was given to me a thorn in the Jlesh, the 
" messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be ex- 
" alted above measure. For this thing I besought the 
" Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he 
" said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my 
" strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly 
" therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the 
" power of Christ may rest upon me." 






No. IV. GAL. iv. 11—16. 91 

There can be no doubt but that " the temptation which 
" was in the flesh," mentioned in the Epistle to the Ga- 
latians, and " the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of 
" Satan to buffet him," mentioned in the Epistle to the 
Corinthians, were intended to denote the same thing-. 
Either therefore it was, what we pretend it to have been, 
the same person in both, alluding, as the occasion led 
him, to some bodily infirmity under which he laboured ; 
that is, we are reading the real letters of a real apostle ; 
or, it was that a sophist, who had seen this circumstance 
in one epistle, contrived, for the sake of correspondency, 
to bring it into another \ or, lastly, it was a circumstance 
in St. Paul's personal condition, supposed to be well 
known to those into whose hands the epistle was likely to 
fall ; and, for that reason, introduced into a writing de- 
signed to bear his name. I have extracted the quotations 
at length, in order to enable the reader to judge accurately 
of the manner in which the mention of this particular 
comes in, in each ; because that judgment, I think, will 
acquit the author of the epistle of the charge of having 
studiously inserted it, either with a view of producing an 
apparent agreement between them, or for any other pur- 
pose whatever. 

The context, by which the circumstance before us is 
iutroduced, is in the two places totally different, and with- 
out any mark of imitation ; yet in both places does the 
circumstance rise aptly and naturally out of the context, 
and that context from the train of thought carried on in 
the epistle. 

The Epistle to the Galatians, from the beginning to 
the end, runs in a strain of angry complaint of their de- 
fection from the apostle, and from the principles which 
he had taught them. It was very natural to contrast, 
with this conduct, the zeal with which they had once re- 
ceived him ; and it was not less so to mention, as a proof 
of their former disposition towards him, the indulgence 
which, whilst he w 7 as amongst them, they had shown to 
his infirmity : " My temptation, which was in my flesh, 
" ye despised not, nor rejected ; but received me as an 
" angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then 



92 HORJE PAULINiE. 

" the blessedness ye spake of," i. e. the benedictions which 
you bestowed upon me ? " for I bear you record, that if 
" it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your 
" own eyes, and have given them to me." 

In the two Epistles to the Corinthians, especially in 
the Second, we have the apostle contending with certain 
teachers in Corinth, who had formed a party in that 
church against him. To vindicate his personal authority, 
as well as the dignity and credit of his ministry amongst 
them, he takes occasion (but not without apologizing re- 
peatedly for the folly, that is, for the indecorum of pro- 
nouncing his own panegyric # ) to meet his adversaries in 
their boastings : [xi. 21 . . 23.] " Whereinsoever any is 
" bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also. Are they He- 
" brews ? so am I. Are they Israelites ? so am I. Are 
" they the seed of Abraham ? so am I. Are they the 
" ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool) I am more ; 
" in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in 
" prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." Being thus led 
to the subject, he goes on, as was natural, to recount his 
trials and dangers, his incessant cares and labours in the 
Christian mission. From the proofs which he had given 
of his zeal and activity in the service of Christ, he passes 
(and that with the same view of establishing his claim to 
be considered as [xi. 5.] " not a whit behind the very 
" chiefest of the apostles") to the visions and revelations 
which from time to time had been vouchsafed to him. 
And then, by a close and easy connection, comes in the 
mention of his infirmity : " Lest I should be exalted," 
says he, " above measure, through the abundance of the 
" revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, 
" the messenger of Satan to buffet me." 

Thus then, in both epistles, the notice of his infirmity 
is suited to the place in which it is found. In the Epistle 
to the Corinthians, the train of thought draws up to the 

* " Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, 
" and indeed bear with me." xi. 1. 

" That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it 
" were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting." xi. 17. 

" I am become a fool in glorying ; ye have compelled me." xii. 
11. 



No. V. GAL. iv. 29. v. 11. vi. 17. 93 

circumstance by a regular approximation. In this epistle, 
it is suggested by the subject and occasion of the epistle 
itself. Which observation we offer as an argument to 
prove that it is not, in either epistle, a circumstance in- 
dustriously brought forward for the sake of procuring 
credit to an imposture. 

A reader will be taught to perceive the force of this ar- 
gument, who shall attempt to introduce a given circum- 
stance into the body of a writing. To do this without 
abruptness, or without betraying marks of design in the 
transition, requires, he will find, more art than he ex- 
pected to be necessary, certainly more than any one can 
believe to have been exercised in the composition of these 
epistles. 



No. V. 

Chap. iv. 29. " But as then he that was born after 
" the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, 
" even so is it now." 

v. 11. " And I, brethren, if I yet preach circum- 
" cision, why do I yet suffer persecution ? Then is the 
" offence of the cross ceased." 

vi. 17- " From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for 
" I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 

From these several texts, it is apparent that the perse- 
cutions which our apostle had undergone, were from the 
hands or by the instigation of the Jews ; that it was not 
for preaching Christianity in opposition to heathenism, but 
it was for preaching it as distinct from Judaism, that he 
had brought upon himself the sufferings which had attended 
his ministry. And this representation perfectly coincides 
with that which results from the detail of St. Paul's his- 
tory, as delivered in the Acts. At Antioch in Pisidia, 
the " word of the Lord was published throughout all the 
" region ; but the Jews stirred up the devout and honour- 
" able women and the chief men of the city, and raised 
" persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled 
" them out of their coasts." (Acts, xiii. 50.) Not long 



94 HOR.E PAULINA. 

after, at Iconium, " a great multitude of the Jews, and 
" also of the Greeks, believed ; but the unbelieving Jews 
" stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil 
" affected against the brethren." (xiv. 1,2.) "At Lystra 
" there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, 
" who persuaded the people ; and having stoned Paul, 
" drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead." 
(xiv. 19.) The same enmity, and from the same quarter, 
our apostle experienced in Greece : "At Thessalonica, 
" some of them (the Jews) believed, and consorted with 
" Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a great mul- 
" titude, and of the chief women not a few : but the Jews 
" which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them 
" certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a 
" company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted 
" the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to 
" the people." (Acts, xvii. 4, 5.) Their persecutors 
follow them to Bersea : " When the. Jews of Thessalonica 
" had knowledge that the word of God was preached of 
" Paul at Bereea, they came thither also, and stirred 
" up the people." (xvii. 13.) And lastly, at Corinth, 
when Gallio was deputy of Achaia, [xviii. 12. 3 " the 
" Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, 
" and brought him to the judgment-seat." I think it 
does not appear that our apostle was ever set upon by 
the Gentiles, unless they were first stirred up by the Jews, 
except in two instances ; in both which the persons who 
began the assault were immediately interested in his ex- 
pulsion from the place. Once this happened at Philippi, 
after the cure of the Pythoness : " When her masters 
" saw the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul 
" and Silas, and drew them into the market-place unto 
' * the rulers." (xvi. 19.) And a second time at Ephesus, 
at the instance of " Demetrius, a silversmith, which made 
" silver shrines for Diana," who " called together the work- 
" men of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by 
" this craft we have our wealth ; moreover, ye see and hear 
" that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all 
" Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much 
" people, saying that they be no gods which are made 



No. VI. & VII. GAL. vi. 1. iii. 23—25. iv. 1—5. 95 

" with hands ; so that not only this our craft is in danger 
u to be set at nought, but also that the temple of the great 
" goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence 
" should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world wor- 
" shippeth." [A. xix. 24 . . 27.] 



No. VI. 

I observe an agreement in a somewhat peculiar rule of 
Christian conduct, as laid down in this epistle, and as ex- 
emplified in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. It is 
not the repetition of the same general precept, which 
would have been a coincidence of little value ; but it is 
the general precept in one place, and the application of 
that precept to an actual occurrence in the other. In the 
sixth chapter and the first verse of this epistle, our apostle 
gives the following direction : " Brethren, if a man be 
" overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore 
" such a one in the spirit of meekness." In 2 Cor. ii. 
6 — 8, he writes thus : " Sufficient to such a man" (the 
incestuous person mentioned in the First Epistle) " is this 
" punishment, which was inflicted of many ; so that, con- 
trariwise, ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort 
him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up 
a with over-much sorrow : wherefore 1 beseech you that 
" ye would confirm your love towards him." I have little 
doubt but that it was the same mind which dictated these 
two passages. 



a 



No. VII. 

Our epistle goes farther than any of St. Paul's epistles ; 
for it avows in direct terms the supersession of the Jewish 
law, as an instrument of salvation, even to the Jews them- 
selves. Not only were the Gentiles exempt from its autho- 
rity, but even the Jews were no longer either to place any 
dependency upon it, or consider themselves as subject to it 
on a religious account. " Before faith came, we were 



96 HORJE PAULINA. 

" kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should 
" afterwards be revealed ; wherefore the law was our 
" schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be 
" justified by faith ; but, after that faith is come, we are 
" no longer under a schoolmaster" (iii. 28 — 25.) 

This was undoubtedly spoken of Jews and to Jews. In 
like manner, iv. 1 — 5 : " Now I say that the heir, as 
" long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, 
" though he be lord of all ; but is under tutors and go- 
" vernors until the time appointed of the father : even so 
" we, when we were children, were in bondage under the 
Ci elements of the world ; but when the fulness of the 
" time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a 
" woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
" under the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
" sons/' These passages are nothing short of a declara- 
tion, that the obligation of the Jewish law, considered as 
a religious dispensation, the effects of which were to take 
place in another life, had ceased, with respect even to 
the Jews themselves. What then should be the conduct 
of a Jew (for such St. Paul was) who preached this doc- 
trine ? To be consistent with himself, either he would no 
longer comply, in his own person, with the directions of 
the law ; or, if he did comply, it would be for some other 
reason than any confidence which he placed in its efficacy, 
as a religious institution. Now so it happens, that when- 
ever St. Paul's compliance with the Jewish law is men- 
tioned in the history, it is mentioned in connection with 
circumstances which point out the motive from which it 
proceeded ; and this motive appears to have been always 
exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquillity, or an 
unwillingness to give unnecessary offence. Thus, Acts, 
xvi. 3 : " Him (Timothy) would Paul have to go forth 
'■* with him, and took and circumcised him, because of 
" the Jews which ivere in those quarters" Again (Acts, 
xxi. 26.), when Paul consented to exhibit an example of 
public compliance with a Jewish rite, by purifying himself 
in the temple, it is plainly intimated that he did this to 
satisfy " many thousands of Jews who believed, and who 
" were all zealous of the law." So far the instances re- 



No. VIII. & IX. GAL. i. 18. vi. 11. 97 

lated in one book, correspond with the doctrine delivered 
in another. 



No. VIII. 

Chap. i. 18. " Then, after three years, I went up to 
" Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen 
" days." 

The shortness of St. Paul's stay at Jerusalem, is what 
I desire the reader to remark. The direct account of the 
same journey in the Acts, ix. 28, determines nothing- 
concerning the time of his continuance there : " And he 
" was with them (the apostles) coming in and going out 
" at Jerusalem ; and he spake boldly in the name of the 
" Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians ; but they 
ft went about to slay him : which when the brethren knew, 
" they brought him down to Csesarea." Or rather this 
account, taken by itself, would lead a reader to suppose 
that St. Paul's abode at Jerusalem had been longer than 
fifteen days. But turn to the twenty-second chapter 
[yv. 17> 18.] of the Acts, and you will find a reference to 
this visit to Jerusalem, which plainly indicates that Paul's 
continuance in that city had been of short duration : 
u And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to 
" Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in 
" a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, 
" and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not 
" receive thy testimony concerning me." Here we have 
the general terms of one text so explained by a distant 
text in the same book, as to bring" an indeterminate ex- 
pression into close conformity with a specification delivered 
in another book : a species of consistency not, I think, 
usually found in fabulous relations. 



No. IX. 

Chap. vi. 11. " Ye see how large a letter I have 
written unto you with mine own hand." 

H 



98 HORiE PAULINA. 

These words imply that he did not always write with 
his own hand ; which is consonant to what we find inti- 
mated in some other of the epistles. The epistle to the 
Romans was written by Tertius : "I Tertius, who wrote 
" this epistle, salute you in the Lord ;" (xvi. 22.) The 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, and the Second to the Thessalonians, have all, near 
the conclusion, this clause : " The salutation of me, Paul, 
" with mine own hand ; " which must be understood, and 
is universally understood to import, that the rest of the 
epistle was written by another hand. I do not think it 
improbable that an impostor, who had remarked this sub- 
scription in some other epistle, should invent the same in 
a forgery ; but that is not done here. The author of this 
epistle does not imitate the manner of giving St. Paul's 
signature ; he only bids the Galatians observe how large 
a letter he had written to them with his own hand. He does 
not say this was different from his ordinary usage ; that is 
left to implication. Now to suppose that this was an arti- 
fice to procure credit to an imposture, is to suppose that 
the author of the forgery, because he knew that others of 
St. Paul's were not written by himself, therefore made 
the apostle say that this was : which seems an odd turn 
to give to the circumstance, and to be given for a purpose, 
which would more naturally and more directly have been 
answered by subjoining the salutation or signature in the 
form in which it is found in other epistles. # 

* The words mjX//co*$ ypd^aa-iv may probably be meant to 
describe the character in which he wrote, and not the length of 
the letter. But this will not alter the truth of our observation. 
I think, however, that as St. Paul, by the mention of his own hand, 
designed to express to the Galatians the great concern which he 
felt for them, the words, whatever they signify, belong to the 
whole of the epistle ; and not, as Grotius, after St. Jerom, inter- 
prets it, to the few verses which follow. 



No, X. GAL, ii. 12. 99 



No. X. 






An exact conformity appears in the manner in which a 
certain apostle or eminent Christian, whose name was 
James, is spoken of in the epistle and in the history. 
Both writings refer to a situation of his at Jerusalem, 
somewhat different from that of the other apostles ; a kind 
of eminence or presidency in the church there, or at least 
a more fixed and stationary residence, ii. 12 : " When 
" Peter was at Antioch, before that certain came from 
" James, he did eat with the Gentiles." This text plainly 
attributes a kind of pre-eminency to James ; and, as we 
hear of him twice in the same epistle dwelling at Jerusalem, 
i. 19, and ii. 9, we must apply it to the situation which 
he held in that church. In the Acts of the Apostles 
divers intimations occur, conveying the same idea of 
James's situation. When Peter was miraculously de- 
livered from prison, and had surprised his friends by his 
appearance among them, after declaring unto them how 
the Lord had brought him out of prison, " Go shew," 
says he, " these things unto James, and to the brethren." 
(Acts, xii. 17.) Here James is manifestly spoken of in 
terms of distinction. He appears again with like dis- 
tinction in the twenty-first chapter and the seventeenth and 
eighteenth verses : " And when we" (Paul and his com- 
pany) " were come to Jerusalem ; the day following, 
" Paul went in with us unto James, and all the elders 
" were present." In the debate which took place upon 
the business of the Gentile converts, in the council at 
Jerusalem, this same person seems to have taken the lead. 
It was he who closed the debate, and proposed the resolu- 
tion in which the council ultimately concurred : " Where- 
" fore my sentence is, that we trouble not them which from 
" among the Gentiles are turned to God." [A. xv. 19.] 

Upon the whole, that there exists a conformity in the 
expressions used concerning James, throughout the his- 
tory, and in the epistle, is unquestionable. But, admitting 
this conformity, and admitting also the undesignedness of 
it, what does it prove ? It proves that the circumstance 

H % 



100 HORiE PAULINA. 

itself is founded in truth ; that is, that James was a real 
person, who held a situation of eminence in a real society 
of Christians at Jerusalem. It confirms also those parts 
of the narrative which are connected with this circum- 
stance. Suppose, for instance, the truth of the account of 
Peter's escape from prison was to be tried upon the testi- 
mony of a witness who, amongst other things, made Peter, 
after his deliverance, say, " Go shew these things to 
" James, and to the brethren ;" would it not be material, 
in such a trial, to make out by other independent proofs, 
or by a comparison of proofs drawn from independent 
sources, that there was actually at that time, living at 
Jerusalem, such a person as James ; that this person held 
such a situation in the society amongst whom these things 
were transacted, as to render the words which Peter is 
said to have used concerning him, proper and natural for 
him to have used ? If this would be pertinent in the dis- 
cussion of oral testimony, it is still more so in appreciating 
the credit of remote history. 



[No. xi.] 

It must not be dissembled that the comparison of our 
epistle with the history presents some difficulties, or, to 
say the least, some questions, of considerable magnitude. 

(i.) It may be doubted, in the first place, to what 
journey the words which open the second chapter of the 
epistle, " Then, fourteen years afterwards, I went unto 
" Jerusalem," relate. That which [apparently^ best cor- 
responds with the date, and that to which most inter- 
preters apply the passage, is the journey of Paul and 
Barnabas to Jerusalem, when they went thither from An- 
tioch, upon the business of the Gentile converts ; and 
which journey produced the famous council and decree 
recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Acts. To me this 
opinion appears to be encumbered with strong objections. 
In the epistle, Paul tells us that " he went up by reve- 
" lation ;" (ii. 2.) In the Acts, we read that he was sent 
by the church of Antioch : " After no small dissension 



[No. xi.] GAL. ii. 1 . . . 10. 101 

€ * and disputation, they determined that Paul and Bar- 
<( nabas, and certain other of them, should go up to the 
" apostles and elders about this question." (Acts, xv. 2.) 
This is not very reconcileable.— In the epistle, St. Paul 
writes that, when he came to Jerusalem, " he communi- 
u cated that Gospel which he preached among the Gen- 
" tiles, but privately to them which were of reputation. " 
(ii. 2.) If by " that Gospel" be meant the immunity of 
the Gentile Christians from the Jewish law (and I know 
not what else it can mean), it is not easy to conceive how 
he should communicate that privately, which was the sub- 
ject of his public message. 

(ii.) But a yet greater difficulty remains, viz. that in the 
account which the epistle gives of what passed upon this 
visit at Jerusalem, no notice is taken of the deliberation 
and decree which are recorded in the Acts, and which, 
according to that history, formed the business for the sake 
of which the journey was undertaken. The mention of 
the council and of its determination, whilst the apostle 
was relating his proceedings at Jerusalem, could hardly 
have been avoided, if in truth the narrative belong to the 
same journey. To me it appears more probable that Paul 
and Barnabas had taken some journey to Jerusalem, the 
mention of which is omitted in the Acts. Prior to the 
apostolic decree, we read that " Paul and Barnabas abode 
" at Antioch a long time with the disciples. " (Acts, xiv. 
28.) Is it unlikely that, during this long abode, they 
might go up to Jerusalem and return to Antioch ? Or 
would the omission of such a journey be unsuitable to the 
general brevity with which these memoirs are written, 
especially of those parts of St. Paul's history which took 
place before the historian joined his society ? * 

But, again, the first account we find in the Acts of the 
Apostles of St. Paul's visiting Galatia, is in the sixteenth 
chapter, and the sixth verse : " Now when they had gone 
" through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they 

* [For a regular examination of the point here started, and for 
its determination in the affirmative, see Appendix on the close of 
Acts xiv. The question turns on the absolute discrepancy be- 
tween the two narratives in Acts xv., and in Gal. ii. 1 . . . 10.] 

H 3 



102 HOR^ PAULINA 

" assayed to go into Bithynia." The progress here re- 
corded was subsequent to the apostolic decree ; therefore 
that decree must have been extant when our epistle was 
written. Now, as the professed design of the epistle was 
to establish the exemption of the Gentile converts from 
the law of Moses, and as the decree pronounced and 
confirmed that exemption, it may seem extraordinary that 
no notice whatever is taken of that determination, nor 
any appeal made to its authority. 

Much, however, of the weight of this objection, which 
applies also to some other of St. Paul's epistles, is re- 
moved by the following reflections. 

1. It was not St. Paul's manner, nor agreeable to it, 
to resort or defer much to the authority of the other 
apostles, especially whilst he was insisting, as he does 
strenuously throughout this epistle insist, upon his own 
original inspiration. He who could speak of the very 
chiefest of the apostles in such terms [ii. 6.] as the 
following — "of those who seemed to be somewhat, 
" whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God 
" accepteth no man's person: for they who seemed to be 
" somewhat in conference added nothing to me " — he, 
I say, was not likely to support himself by their decision. 

2. The epistle argues the point upon principle ; and it 
is not perhaps more to be wondered at, that in such an 
argument St. Paul should not cite the apostolic decree, 
than it would be that, in a discourse designed to prove the 
moral and religious duty of observing the sabbath, the 
writer should not quote the thirteenth canon. 

3. The decree did not go the length of the position 
maintained in the epistle ; the decree only declares that 
the apostles and elders at Jerusalem did not impose the 
observance of the Mosaic law upon the Gentile converts, 
as a condition of their being admitted into the Christian 
church. Our epistle argues that the Mosaic institution 
itself was at an end, as to all effects upon a future state, 
even with respect to the Jews themselves. 

4. They whose error St. Paul combatted, were not 
persons who submitted to the Jewish law, because it was 
imposed by the authority, or because it was made part of 






[No. xi.] GAL. ii. 1 . . . 10. 303 

tlie law, of the Christian church ; but they were persons 
who, having- already become Christians, afterwards volun- 
tarily took upon themselves the observance of the Mosaic 
code, under a notion of attaining thereby to a greater 
perfection. This, I think, is precisely the opinion which 
St. Paul opposes in this epistle. Many of his expressions 
apply exactly to it : ie Are ye so foolish ? having begun 
u in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ?" 
(iii. 3.) " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, 
" do ye not hear the law?" (iv. 21.) " How turn ye 
" again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto 
" ye desire again to be in bondage ?" (iv. 9-) It cannot 
be thought extraordinary that St. Paul should resist this 
opinion with earnestness ; for it both changed the cha- 
racter of the Christian dispensation, and derogated ex- 
pressly from the completeness of that redemption which 
Jesus Christ had wrought for them that believed in him. 
But it was to no purpose to allege to such persons the 
decision at Jerusalem, for that only showed that they 
were not bound to these observances by any law of the 
Christian church : they did not pretend to be so bound. 
Nevertheless they imagined that there was an efficacy in 
these observances, a merit, a recommendation to favour, 
and a ground of acceptance with God, for those who 
complied with them. This was a situation of thought to 
which the tenor of the decree did not apply. Accordingly, 
St. Paul's address to the Galatians, which is throughout 
adapted to this situation, runs in a strain widely different 
from the language of the decree : " Christ is become of 
" no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the 
'Maw;' 5 (v. 4.) i, e. whosoever places his dependence 
upon any merit he may apprehend there to be in legal ob- 
servances. The decree had said nothing like this ; there- 
fore it would have been useless to have produced the 
decree in an argument of which this was the burthen. In 
like manner as, in contending with an anchorite, who 
should insist upon the superior holiness of a recluse, 
ascetic life, and the value of such mortifications in the 
sight of God, it would be to no purpose to prove that the 
laws of the church did not require these vows, or even to 

H 4 



104 HOR^E PAULINA. 

prove that the laws of the church expressly left every 
Christian to his liberty. This would avail little towards 
abating his estimation of their merit, or towards settling 
the point in controversy.* 

* Mr. Locke's solution of this difficulty is by no means satisfac- 
tory. " St. Paul/' he says, " did not remind the Galatians of the 
" apostolic decree, because they already had it." In the first place, 
it does not appear with certainty that they had it ; in the second 
place, if they had it, this was rather a reason, than otherwise, for 
referring them to it. The passage in the Acts, from which Mr. 
Locke concludes that the Galatic churches were in possession of 
the decree, is the fourth verse of the sixteenth chapter : " And as 
"they" (Paul and Timothy) "went through the cities, they 
" delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained 
" of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem." In my 
opinion, this delivery of the decree was confined to the churches 
to which St. Paul came, in pursuance of the plan upon which he 
set out, of ie visiting the brethren in every city where he had 
" preached the word of the Lord;" the history of which progress, 
and of all that pertained to it, is closed in the fifth verse, when 
the history informs us that " so were the churches established in 
" the faith, and increased in number daily." Then the history 
proceeds upon a new section of the narrative, by telling us that 
" when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Ga- 
" latia, they assayed to go into Bithynia.'' The decree itself is 
directed " to the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, 
" Syria, and Cilicia;" that is, to churches already founded, and in 
which this question had been stirred. And I think the observation 
of the noble author [Lord Barrington] of the Miscellanea Sacra is 
not only ingenious, but highly probable, viz. that there is, in this 
place, a dislocation of the text, and that the fourth and fifth verses 
of the sixteenth chapter ought to follow the last verse of the fif- 
teenth, so as to make the entire passage run thus : " And they 
" went through Syria and Cilicia" {to the Christians of which 
countries the decree was addressed), " confirming the churches ; 
" and as they went through the cities, they delivered them the 
" decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders 
" which were at Jerusalem ; and so were the churches established 
" in the faith, and increased in number daily." And then the six- 
teenth chapter takes up a new and unbroken paragraph : " Then 
came be to Derbe and Lystra," &c. When St. Paul came, as he 
did into Galatia, to preach the gospel, for the first time, in a new 
place, it is not probable that he would make mention of the decree, 
or rather letter, of the church of Jerusalem, which pre-supposed 
Christianity to be known, and which related to certain doubts that 
had arisen in some established Christian communities. 

The second reason which Mr. Locke assigns for the omission of 
the decree, viz. " that St. Paul's sole object in the epistle, was to 






[No. xi.] GAL. ii. 11,. 14. 105 

(iii.) Another difficulty arises from the account of 
Peter's conduct towards the Gentile converts at Antioch, 
as given in the epistle, in the latter part of the second 
chapter ; which conduct, it is said, is consistent neither 
with the revelation communicated to him, upon the con- 
version of Cornelius, nor with the part he took in the 
debate at Jerusalem. But, in order to understand either 
the difficulty or the solution, it will be necessary to state 
and explain the passage itself, [ii. 11 . . 14.] " When 
" Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the 
" face, because he was to be blamed ; for, before that 
" certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; 
" but when they were come, he withdrew and separated 
" himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision ; 
" and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, in- 
" somuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their 
" dissimulation : but when I saw that they walked not 
" uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel, I said 
" unto Peter, before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest 
" after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, 
" why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the 
" Jews ? " Now the question that produced the dispute 
to which these words relate, was not whether the Gentiles 
were capable of being admitted into the Christian cove- 
nant ; that had been fully settled : nor was it whether 
it should be accounted essential to the profession of Chris- 
tianity that they should conform themselves to the law of 
Moses ; that was the question at Jerusalem : but it was, 
whether, upon the Gentiles becoming Christians, the Jews 
might thenceforth eat and drink with them, as with their 
own brethren. Upon this point St. Peter betrayed some 
inconstancy ; and so he might, agreeably enough to his 



" acquit himself of the imputation that had been charged upon him 
" of actually preaching circumcision," does not appear to me to 
be strictly true. It was not the sole object. The epistle is writ- 
ten in general opposition to the Judaizing inclinations which he 
found to prevail amongst his converts. The avowal of his own 
doctrine, and of his steadfast adherence to that doctrine, formed a 
necessary part of the design of his letter, but was not the whole of 
it. 



106 UORM PAULINiE. 

history. He might consider the vision at Joppa as a 
direction for the occasion, rather than as universally 
abolishing the distinction between Jew and Gentile ; I do 
not mean with respect to final acceptance with God, but 
as to the manner of their living together in society : at 
least he might not have comprehended this point with 
such clearness and certainty, as to stand out upon it 
against the fear of bringing upon himself the censure and 
complaint of his brethren in the church of Jerusalem, 
who still adhered to their ancient prejudices. But Peter, 
it is said, compelled the Gentiles 'louha'i^eiv — "why 
" compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" 
How did he do that ? The only way in which Peter 
appears to have compelled the Gentiles to comply with 
the Jewish institution, was by withdrawing himself from 
their society. By which he may be understood to have 
made this declaration : " We do not deny your right to 
" be considered as Christians ; we do not deny your title 
" in the promises of the Gospel, even without compliance 
" with our law ; but if you would have us Jews live with 
" you, as we do with one another, that is, if you would 
" in all respects be treated by us as Jews, you must live 
"as such yourselves." This, I think, was the compul- 
sion which St. Peter's conduct imposed upon the Gen- 
tiles, and for which St. Paul reproved him. 

As to the part which the historian ascribes to St. Peter, 
in the debate at Jerusalem, beside that it was a different 
question which was there agitated from that which pro- 
duced the dispute at Antioch, there is nothing to hinder 
us from supposing that the dispute at Antioch was prior 
to the consultation at Jerusalem ; or that Peter, in con- 
sequence of this rebuke, might have afterwards main- 
tained firmer sentiments. 

[Note on p. 86. — With some reluctance I stop here to remark 
what appears a singular oversight as to the geography of Palestine. 
When St. Paul arrived in Csesarea, he had actually gone (A. xii. 19. 
xxi. 8. 10.) through Judea in his way; and even if the same re- 
gard to his personal safety which carried him to Csesarea had 
allowed the continuance of his journey by land, it was through 
part of Samaria and through Phcenice (A. xv. 2, 3.) he must have 
travelled, before he could pass through Syria ; so that his going 



No. I. EPH. vi. 21, "22. 107 

onward from Csesarea by land could, bear no relation whatever to 
his being either known or unknown by face to the churches in Judea. 
It is true, also, that^if St. Paul had proceeded by land from 
Csesarea onward, he would have gone through the regions of 
Syria and Cilicia, in the very order which the epistle exhibits ; 
whereas, if he went by sea to Tarsus in the first instance, he would 
of course visit Cilicia before he visited Syria. But merely from 
the different order in which St. Paul, long afterwards, writing to 
the Galatians, names those two regions, it would be quite idle to 
draw any conclusion as to the fact itself. On some occasions, to 
be sure, where the context demands it, the order of travel, as 
" Macedonia and Achaia," (A. xix. 21.) must regulate the order of 
mention also. Otherwise, as in the case before us, where no such 
necessity directed, and under a tacit reference, perhaps, to Antioch 
or Jerusalem as the central point, it would be more natural for 
St. Paul to place Syria and Cilicia in that very succession than in 
the contrary.] 



CHAP. VI. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 

No. I. 

This epistle, and the Epistle to the Colossians, appear 
to have been transmitted to their respective churches by 
the same messenger : " But that ye also may know my 
" affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and 
" faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to 
" you all things ; whom I have sent unto you for the 
" same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that 
" he might comfort your hearts." (JEph. vi. 21, 22.) 
This text, if it do not expressly declare, clearly, I think, 
intimates, that the letter was sent by Tychicus. The 
words made use of in the Epistle to the Colossians are 
very similar to these, and afford the same implication that 
Tychicus, in conjunction with Onesimus, was the bearer 
of the letter to that church: "All my state shall Tychicus 
" declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a 



108 HORM PAULINA, 

" faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord; whom 
" I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he 
" might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; with 
" Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one 
" of you : they shall make known unto you all things 
" which are done here." (Colos. iv. 7 — 9.) Both epistles 
represent the writer as under imprisonment for the 
gospel ; and both treat of the same general subject. The 
Epistle therefore to the Ephesians, and the Epistle to the 
Colossians, import to be two letters written by the same 
person, at, or nearly at, the same time, and upon the 
same subject, and to have been sent by the same mes- 
senger. Now, every thing in the sentiments, order, and 
diction of the two writings corresponds with what might 
be expected from this circumstance of identity or cogna- 
tion in their original. The leading doctrine of both 
epistles is the union of Jews and Gentiles under the 
Christian dispensation ; and that doctrine in both is esta- 
blished by the same arguments, or, more properly speak- 
ing, illustrated by the same similitudes*: "one head," 
"one body," "one new man," "one temple," are in both 
epistles the figures, under which the society of believers 
in Christ, and their common relation to him as such, is 
represented.t The ancient, and, as had been thought, 
the indelible distinction between Jew and Gentile, in both 

* St. Paul, I am apt to believe, has been sometimes accused 
of inconclusive reasoning, by our mistaking that for reasoning 
which was only intended for illustration. He is not to be read as 
a man, whose own persuasion of the truth of what he taught, 
always or solely depended upon the views under which he repre- 
sents it in his writings. Taking for granted the certainty of his 
doctrine, as resting upon the revelation that had been imparted to 
him, he exhibits it frequently to the conception of his readers 
under images and allegories, in which if an analogy may be per- 
ceived, or even sometimes a poetic resemblance be found, it is all 
perhaps that is required. 

("Ephes. i. 22."] f Colos. i. 18. 

■f Compare-! iv. 15. J- with J ii. 19. 

L h. 15.J I iii. 10, 11. 



Colos. ii. 14. 

i. 18—21, 
ii. 7. 



f Ephes. ii. 14, 15. "] f< 

i ii. 16. I with J 

1 MO. J I 



No. I. EPH. i. 7. i. 10, &c. 109 

epistles, is declared to be " now abolished by his cross." 
[Eph. ii. 15, 16.] Beside this consent in the general 
tenor of the two epistles, and in the run also and warmth 
of thought with which they are composed, we may 
naturally expect, in letters produced under the circum- 
stances, in which these appear to have been written, a 
closer resemblance of style and diction, than between other 
letters of the same person, but of distant dates, or between 
letters adapted to different occasions. In particular we 
may look for many of the same expressions, and some- 
times for whole sentences being alike ; since such ex- 
pressions and sentences would be repeated in the second 
letter (whichever that was) as yet fresh in the author's 
mind from the writing of the first. This repetition occurs 
in the following examples # : 

Ephes. i. 7» " I n whom we have redemption through 
" his blood, the forgiveness of sins." t 

Colos. i. 14. " In whom we have redemption through 
" his blood, the forgiveness of sins." t 

Beside the sameness of the words, it is farther re- 
markable that the sentence is, in both places, preceded by 
the same introductory idea. In the Epistle to the Ephe- 
sians it is the " beloved" (r/yaTTT^Ivco) ; in that to the 
Colossians it is " his dear Son" (ulow t% aya.7rrjg aurou), 
" in whom we have redemption." The sentence appears 
to have been suggested to the mind of the writer by the 
idea which had accompanied it before. 

Ephes. i. 10. " All things, both which are in heaven 
and which are on earth, even in him." § 

Colos. i. 20. " All things by him, whether they be 
things in earth, or things in heaven." || 

* When verbal comparisons are relied upon, it becomes neces- 
sary to state the original ; but that the English reader may be in- 
terrupted as little as may be, I shall in general do this in the note. 

■f Ephes. i. 7. 'Ey <s5 £%o/xev ttjv anoXvrpacnv dice rov aijAccroq ccvrov, 
tvjv ct^ecriv rooy itapccivrccfxtzrcov. 

^ Colos. 1. 14 1 . 'Ev w e^oiAeu rvjy ScKoXyrpcccriv dice rov aifAccroq ccvtgv, 

T^y af £<r<y rav d[AapnSv. — ■ However, it must be observed, that in 
this latter text many copies have not ha roy al'aaroq alrov. 

§ Ephes. 1. 10. Ta re iv ro7q ovpccvo7q Kcti sit) ryjq <yr\q, Iv ccvrS. 
|| Colos. i. 20. A< 5 avrov sire xcl iiii ryjq yyq etre roc, lv To7q ovpavoiq. 



110 HOR^E PAULINA. 

This quotation is the more observable, because the con- 
necting- of things in earth with things in heaven is a very- 
singular sentiment, and found no where else but in these 
two epistles. The words also are introduced and followed 
by a train of thought nearly alike. They are introduced 
by describing the union, which Christ had effected, and 
they are followed by telling the Gentile churches that they 
were incorporated into it. 

Ephes. iii. 2. " The dispensation of the grace of God, 
" which is given me to you ward." # 

Colos. i. 25. " The dispensation of God, which is 
" given to me for you."f 

Of these sentences it may likewise be observed, that 
the accompanying ideas are similar. In both places they 
are immediately preceded by the mention of his present 
sufferings ; in both places they are immediately followed 
by the mention of the mystery which was the great sub- 
ject of his preaching. 

Ephes. v. 19. "In psalms and hymns and spiritual 
" songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the 
" Lord, t 

Colos. iii. 16. "In psalms and hymns and spritual 
" songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."§ 

Ephes. vi. 22. " Whom I have sent unto you for the 
" same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that 
" he might comfort your hearts." || 

" Colos. iv. 8. " Whom I have sent unto you for the 
" same purpose, that he might know your estate, and 
" comfort your hearts." ^[ 

In these examples, we do not perceive a cento of phrases 
gathered from one composition, and strung together in 

* Ephes. iii. 2. Ttjv olKOVoplav rqq yjxpiroq rov Seov rrjq 8o0e/<nj$ poi 
alq v(A.S,q. 

■f Colos. i. 25. Tvjv oiKovoftiav rov Seov ryv loOelo-dv pot alq vpolq. 

£ Ephes. V. 19. "VaXpoTq kou vpvoiq kou o}^a.7q nv£V[Aa,ri.Ka7q, pfovreq 
Kcct tpdWovTEq *v rff Kaphia. vpSv rS Kvpia. 

S Colos. iii. 16. WaXpoTq Kai vpvoiq kou vZaTq rtvav[AartKa7q, lv 
yjxpiri q^ovraq ev tSJ Kaptia v[aSv ra Kvp7a>, 

II Ephes. vi. 22. ""Ov EKE^-ipa npoq vpaq slq avro rovro, Hi/a. yvare ra 
itEpi Vj[/.av, kou TtapaKaXea-rj raq Kapfiiaq v^Sv. 

% Colos. IV. 8. tV Ov tnEfMpa, icpoq ifxaq alq avro rovro, 7va yvS ra. 
<KEp) v^ai/, Ka) TrapaKaXecry raq KapViaq vpav. 



No. I. EPH. i. 19. ii. 5. Ill 

the other ; but the occasional occurrence of the same ex- 
pression to a mind a second time revolving the same 
ideas. 

2. Whoever writes two letters, or two discourses, 
nearly upon the same subject, and at no great distance of 
time, but without any express recollection of what he had 
written before, will find himself repeating some sentences, 
in the very order of the words in which he had already 
used them ; but he will more frequently find himself em- 
ploying some principal terms, with the order inadvertently 
changed, or with the order disturbed by the intermixture 
of other words and phrases expressive of ideas rising up 
at the time ; or, in many instances, repeating not single 
words, nor yet whole sentences, but parts and fragments 
of sentences. Of all these varieties the examination of 
our two epistles will furnish plain examples : and I should 
rely upon this class of instances more than upon the last ; 
because, although an impostor might transcribe into a 
forgery entire sentences and phrases, yet the dislocation of 
words, the partial recollection of phrases and sentences, 
the intermixture of new terms and new ideas with terms 
and ideas before used, which will appear in the examples 
that follow, and which are the natural properties of writings 
produced under the circumstances in which these epistles 
are represented to have been composed — would not, I 
think, have occurred to the invention of a forger ; nor, if 
they had occurred, would they have been so easily exe- 
cuted. This studied variation was a refinement in for- 
gery which I believe did not exist ; or, if we can suppose 
it to have been practised in the instances adduced below, 
why, it may be asked, was not the same art exercised 
upon those which we have collected in the preceding 
class ? 

Ephes. i. 19 ; ii. 5. " Towards us who believe, accord- 
" ing to the working of his mighty power which he 
" wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead 
" (and set him at his own right hand, in the heavenly 
" places, far above all principality, and power, and might, 
" and dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
" in this world but also in that which is to come, and 



112 HORiE PAULINJE. 

" hath put all things under his feet ; and gave him to be 
" the head over all things to the church, which is his 
" body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all) ; and you 
" hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and 
" sins — (wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
" course of this world, according to the prince of the 
" power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the 
" children of disobedience ; among whom also we all had 
" our conversation, in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, 
" fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and 
" were by nature the children of wrath, even as others : 
" but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love where- 
" with he loved us), — even when we were dead in sins, 
" hath quickened us together with Christ." * 

Colos. ii. IS, 13. " Through the faith of the ope- 
" ration of God, who hath raised him from the dead ; and 
" you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of 
" your flesh, hath he quickened together with him." t 

Out of the long quotation from the Ephesians, take 
away the parentheses, and you have left a sentence almost 
in terms the same as the short quotation from the Co- 
lossians. The resemblance is more visible in the original 
than in our translation ; for what is rendered in one place 
the "working," and in another the " operation," is the same 
Greek term svipysia, ; in one place it is, roug 7ri(rTs6ouToc,s 
Kara rrjv evspyeiav ; in the other, $iol rr\g 7n'(TTsa)g ry\g hsp- 
yelag. Here, therefore, we have the same sentiment, and 
nearly in the same words ; but, in the Ephesians, twice 
broken or interrupted by incidental thoughts, which St. 
Paul, as his manner was, enlarges upon by the way t, and 
then returns to the thread of his discourse. It is inter- 
rupted the first time by a view which breaks in upon his 

* Ephes. i. 19, 20; ii. I. 5. Tovq itiarrevovraq Kara rvjv evipysiav 
rov Kpdrovq rr\q Icryjvoq avrov, %v h^pyv}(rev iv rS XpicrrS, kyeipaq avrov Ik 
vskduV Kol SKa&icrsv Iv §£%i$ avrov iv ro7q inovpocvtoiq — Ka\ vpaq ovraq 
vsKpovq roiq itapaitrapacri Kai rati; a^apriaiq — Kai ovraq fj^aq VEKpovq roiq 
irapanTa>[Aaa-i, <rvv£^aoTroiy}<re ra Xpo-Tw. 

■j- ColoS. ii. 12, 13. Aia Tvjq iti(7T£aq r*f\q Ivapydaq rov Seov rov 
lyzlpavroq avrov ek rSv vtKpcov. Ka) vf^aq veKpovq ovraq iv ro7q Ttapaitra^aai 
Kai T7j ccKpotvcrria, rvjq crapKoq vjauv, o-vvs^cooitoirjo's crvv avra. 

J Vide Locke, in loc. 



No. I. EPH. iv. 2—4. iv. 16. 113 

mind of the exaltation of Christ ; and the second time by 
a description of heathen depravity. I have only to remark 
that Griesbach, in his very accurate edition, gives the 
parentheses very nearly in the same manner in which 
they are here placed ; and that, without any respect to 
the comparison which we are proposing. 

Ephes. iv. 2 — 4. " With all lowliness and meekness, 
" with long- suffering, forbearing one another in love ; 
" endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
( ' bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even 
" as ye are called in one hope of your calling." * 

Colos. iii. 12 — 15. " Put on therefore, as the elect 
" of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, 
" humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, for- 
" bearing one another and forgiving one another, if any 
" man have a quarrel against any ; even as Christ forgave 
" you, so also do ye : and, above all these things, put on 
" charity, which is the bond of perfectness ; and let the 
" peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye 
" are called in one body." t 

In these two quotations the words TOL7rsivo$)po(r6v7) 9 
wpaorjis, ixaxpoQuixia, avs%o[Asvoi aKhrihcvv, occur in ex- 
actly the same order ; a^abr*} is also found in both, but 
in a different connection : (ruvOEcr^og Ti\g slprjvrjg answers 
to (rvv§E(TfJ.og rr\g rsT^siorrjrog ; ex7iyQr}Ts ev ev) (rcofxari to 
sv g-(o(aol tco&wg xou sxX7)$y)ts ev [xia, eXwi^i ; yet is this 
similitude found in the midst of sentences otherwise very 
different. 



Ephes. iv. 16. " From whom the whole body fitly 
"joined together, and compacted by that which every 

* Ephes. iv. 2 — 4. Meroc, Tcdtryjt; raitsivofipoa-vv^t; kou npaoTVjroi;, 
(/.Era, [AaxpoOviAiat;, dv£%0jj.evoi dW-t^kav iv dycnzrj, a-TTovdcc^ovreq rypsTv tyjv 

kvQTf]Ta TOV TZVEVjAXroC, Iv T% C-UvSsO-jWii) T'/JiJ s\p'f\V*f\C,' 8V CTOOfX'X. KOU £V TtVaVfAOC, 

Kadaq kzI i/<A7507}T£ ev (Aia lAw/St rvji; KXyasax; vpav. 

■f Colos. iii. 12 — 15. 'Ev§v<ra<r9e ovi/, a; ekKzktoi rov Qeov ayioi 
kou ^ycnnj/xivot, aitXdy^va olKrip^Sv, ^pvja-TOT'/jTa, ronreivofpoa-vv/jv, npaoryroc, 
lActKpodvjAioiv' dve-ftopsvoi dXXrjXuv, kou y^otpiXji^voi eccvro7t;, zdv rig ntpog riven 
f%7] ixofx^'/jv' Kccdag kou 6 Xpicrrog iyjxpicroc.ro v[a7v, ovrco kou vptig' iici Ttdcri 
t\ rovroig r\v dydn'/jv, vjrig i<xri a-uvtea-^og rl^g reXeior'/jrog' kou 7) elp^vrj rov 
©eov Ppa^EverQi) Iv rouq Ko^ptioug vpoov, elq yv kou e/<A7]0>7T6 Iv iv) crcc^ari. 

I 



114 HORiE PAULINiE. 

"joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in 
" the measure of every part, maketh increase of the 
" body." # 

Col. ii. 19. " From which all the body, by joints and 
" bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, 
" increaseth with the increase of God." f 

In these quotations are read !§ ou wold to aSy^a (ru/x,- 
GiGol%6[jlevov in both places, 67ri^opr}yo6ixsDOD answering to 
s7ri%opr}yiag \ $io\ tidd 6l$cod to &/a 7rd(T7)g a<^% ; ao^si 
T7]U au^rj(riu to 7toie7toli tt\d ai)^Yj(riu ; and yet the sen- 
tences are considerably diversified in other parts. 



Ephes. iv. 32. " And be ye kind one to another, 
" tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, 
" for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." t 

Colos. iii. 13. " Forbearing one another and for- 
(i giving one another, if any man have a quarrel against 
" any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." § 

Here we have <c forgiving one another, even as God, 
" for Christ's sake (sd Xp/o-Tm), hath forgiven you," in 
the first quotation, substantially repeated in the second. 
But in the second the sentence is broken by the inter- 
position of a new clause, " if any man have a quarrel 
" against any :" and the latter part is a little varied ; in- 
stead of " God in Christ," it is " Christ hath forgiven 
" you." 



Ephes. iv. 22 — 24. " That ye put off concerning the 
former conversation the old man, which is corrupt ac- 



* Ephes. iv. ] 6. 'E| ov itdv rl (Tupa. a-vvapfxoXoyov^evov kou <tv[a€i- 
taXj)\Kwov bid itdavji; d<fr\c, Tyi; inixopriyiccq koct Ivepyetocv h ^irpcp ivoq 
BKaa-rov fxipovq ttjv av^rj<riu rov crco[/,a,roq TtoisHrai. 

\ Colos. ii. 19. 'E| ov TCav to o-wp 'bid rav dtpuv kou a-w^eo-pav 
'niXopyiyovpsvov kou o-v^ita^b^vov, otv^st rrjv av^a-iv rov ©sou. 

J Ephes. iv. 32. Tii/eaSs •§£ elq dXXrjXovq xp'fjcrrol, £iWXay%voi, 
X^p^o^Bvoi iavroTq, kixBwc, kou b ®ebq iv ~%.piarS> ix&piaoiro v[A.7v. 

§ Colos. iii. 13. 'Ave^o/xevot dKK'qXav, koc) xapi^o^zvoi iavrotq, lav rn; 
ntpoq riva £%tj [Ao^tp^V KocQobq kou b Xpivroi; i%apl<xaro vfMV, ovra kou 
v[Ae7<;. 



No. I. EPH. iv. 32. iv. 22—24. v. 6—8. 115 

" cording to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the 
" spirit of your mind ; and that ye put on the new man, 
" which, after God, is created in righteousness and true 
" holiness." * 

Colos. iii. 9, 10. " Seeing that ye have put off the 
" old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, 
" which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him 
" that created him."t 

In these quotations, " putting off the old man, and 
" putting on the new," appears in both. The idea is fur- 
ther explained by calling it a renewal ; in the one, " re- 
" newed in the spirit of your mind ;" in the other, " re- 
" newed in knowledge." In both, the new man is said 
to be formed according to the same model ; in the one, he 
is " after God created in righteousness and true holi- 
" ness ;" in the other, " he is renewed after the image 
" of him that created him." In a word, it is the same 
person writing upon a kindred subject, with the terms and 
ideas which he had before employed, still floating in his 
memory, t 



Ephes. v. 6 — 8. " Because of these things cometh 
" the ivrath of God upon the children of disobedience : 
n be not ye therefore partakers with them ; for ye were 
" sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord ; 
" walk as children of light." § 

* Ephes. iv. 22 — 24 1 . 'AnoO'sa-Oai vua$, kolto. T'/jv itporipav dvacrrpop'/jv, 
tov iraXaiov dvOpantov tov (pOsipofAsvov Kara, raq li:iQv^laq tyJi; dizaTi]? 
dvavsovcrdat Ss ra izvzvpaTi tov vooq vjxSv, koi iv^vraa-dai tov Kaivlv 
dvQpuirov, tov Kara. ®sov KTicrBivra iv diKaiocrvvrj ko\ octiott/Ti rrjt; aXrflsiaq. 

■j- Colos. iii. 9, 10. 'AireK^vardixevot tov -naKaiov dvOpairov <rvv Ta7$ 
itpd^Ecriv avTov' koI ivtvcrd/jisvoi tov veov, tov dva.Kakvovy.vJOV elq eniyvcco-iv /car' 
elKova tov KTiaavToq avTov. 

{ In these comparisons, we often perceive the reason why the 
writer,, though expressing the same idea, uses a different term ; 
namely, because the term before used is employed in the sentence 
under a different form ; thus, in the quotations under our eye, the 
new man is Kaivbq av8puiro$ in the Ephesians, and tov vLov in the 
Colossians ; but then it is because tov Kaivlv is used in the next 

Word, dvaKouvovfAEVov. 

§ Ephes. V. 6 — 8. Aid ravTa yap zpyjtTai 7} opyvj tov Oeov eV; rov<; 

i c 2 



116 HOR^E PAULINiE. 

Colos. iii. 6 — 8. " For which things 9 sake the wrath 
" of God cometh on the children of disobedience ; in the 
" which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them ; 
" but now ye also put off all these." * 

These verses afford a specimen of that partial resem- 
blance which is only to be met with when no imitation is 
designed, when no studied recollection is employed, but 
when the mind, exercised upon the same subject, is left 
to the spontaneous return of such terms and phrases, as, 
having been used before, may happen to present them- 
selves again. The sentiment of both passages is through- 
out alike ; half of that sentiment, the denunciation of 
God's wrath, is expressed in identical words ; the other 
half, viz. the admonition to quit their former conversation, 
in words entirely different. 



Ephes. v. 15, 16. " See then that ye walk circum- 
" spectly ; not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time."t 

Colos. iv. 5. " Walk in wisdom toward them that 
" are without, redeeming the time." t 

This is another example of that mixture which we re- 
marked of sameness and variety in the language of one 
writer. " Redeeming the time" (s{;ocyopoL%6[JLsvoi rov 
xaipou) is a literal repetition. " Walk not as fools, but 
" as wise" (7rspnrare7TS [X7] cog a(ro(poi aAX' cog (rotpol) 
answers exactly in sense, and nearly in terms, to " walk 
" in wisdom" (Iv <ro$ia wepnroLTeiTe). Tie pnroLT sirs 
axpiGwg is a very different phrase, but is intended to con- 
vey precisely the same idea as 7r s pur «t sirs 7rpog robg e{~co : 
<xxpi£cbg is not well rendered " circumspectly." It means 



vlovq rr\q diteiOelaq. My ovv yivecrBe (tv[A[azto%oi avruv. 'Hte yap icare 
cxoroq, vvv he <pZq iv Kvpia* ccq tekvcc (paroq r Kepnare7re. 

* Colos. ill. 6 — 8. A*' a ep%erai vj opyy) rov &eov in) rovq vlovq ryjq 
dveiOeiaq, iv olq kcu vpeTq i itspi£'XaTvj<raTE wore, ore eCfire iv avroTq' Nw< 
Se dnoQea-Qe kou vpeTq rd navra. 

f Ephes. V. 15, 16. BXe7:ere ovv itSq d/cpiSuq it spiv entire* /xvj coq 
a<ro<poi, dXK' coq cro<po), i^ayopa^o^evoi rov Koapov. 

$ Colos. iv. 5. 'Ev <ro<pia TtepnrareTTE npoq rovq el; a, rov Kctiph e^ayopa- 

ZfilAEVQl. 



No. I. EPH. v. 15, 16. vi. 19, 20. v. 22 ... . 117 

what in modern speech we should call " correctly ;" and 
when we advise a person to behave " correctly," our ad- 
vice is always given with a reference to " the opinion of 
others," Trpog roug sfftj. " Walk correctly, redeeming 
" the time," L e. suiting yourselves to the difficulty and 
ticklishness of the times in which we live, " because the 
" days are evil." 



Ephes. vi. 19, 20. " And (praying) for me, that ut- 
" terance may be given unto me, that I may open my 
" mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gos- 
" pel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that 
" therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." # 

Colos. iv. 3, 4. " Withal praying also for us, that 
" God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak 
" the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, 
" that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak." t 

In these quotations, the phrase " as I ought to speak" 
(cog 8s* (xs AaX7J<ra/), the words " utterance" (T^oyog), 
" mystery" Qxuo-rrjpiov), "open" (avol^r] and su auoi^si), 
are the same. " To make known the mystery of the 
" Gospel" (yvaipl<rai to [xua-TYjf/iov), answers to " make 
" it manifest" (Jva <$>avspa)<ra) aura) ; " for which I am 
" an ambassador in bonds" (u7rsp oo Trpso-Qzuw su ScXuosi), 
to " for which I am also in bonds" (oY o xa\ Ss&spx/). 

Ephes. v. 22 . . . . " Wives, submit yourselves to your 
" own husbands, as unto the Lord ; for the husband is 
" the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the 
" church, and he is the saviour of the body. There- 
" fore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the 
" wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Hus- 
" bands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the 
" church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanc- 

* Ephes. Vi. 19, 20. Kou viclp Ipov, ha [/.oi loQd-fi \ojo<; Iv dvoitjei 
rov <jT0fJLO,TQ<; (aov iv napp'ricta, yvccplcrai to \KV<jr'f\piov rov evayysXiov, vivlp 
ov izptattvu Iv dXvcrsi, <va Iv avra napp'/jo'tacraf/.ai, dq Ze7 [as Xakvjo-at. 

•f Colos. iv. 3, 4. TipocravyJfAevoi a\f.a koi 'Kept ypav, wa o ®£o<j dvot^r} 
vjfjuv "^vpav rov ko'yov, AaX'/jcat to f/.v<nr}piov rov XpHTrov, Si' o kou 'bite^ai, 
'iva (pavtpuHTu avro, wq §£? (xs XaXyjcrai. 

i 3 



118 B.ORM PAULINiE. 

" tify and cleanse it with the washing- of water by the 
" word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious 
" churchy not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; 
" but that it should be holy and without blemish. So 
" ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. 
" He that loveth his wife, loveth himself ; for no man 
" ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and che- 
" risheth it, even as the Lord the church ; for we are 
" members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. 
" For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, 
" and be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one 
" flesh. This is a great mystery ; but I speak concern- 
" ing Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one 
*' of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; 
" and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Chil- 
" dren, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, 
" Honour thy father and mother (which is the first com- 
" mandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, 
" and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye 
"fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring 
" them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
" Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters 
" according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in 
" singleness of your heart, as unto Christ ; not with eye 
" service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, 
" doing the will of God from the heart, with good will 
" doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men ; know- 
" ing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
" same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond 
6i or f Teet And, ye masters, do the same things unto 
" them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your mas- 
" ter also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons 
" with him." * 

t Colos. iii. 18 .... " Wives, submit yourselves unto 

* Eplies, V. 22. At yvvcuKZ^ totq Ihion; dv'bpdaiv vTrordcrcrEards, cot; tw 
Kvptv. 

■f Colos. iii. 18. A* yvva7K£<;, v-rtorda-crea-Os tote, Ihioit; dv§pd<riv, cot; dvrJKev 
\v Kvpiw, 

EpbeS. vi. 25. 01 cci/ftpst;, dyaitaTE rdq yvvouKcct; icxvrcov. 
Colos. iii. 19» Ot avhptt;, dyenstxTt rdt; yvvouKat;, 



No. I. EPH. v. 22. 119 

cc your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, 
" love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 
" Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is 
" well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not 
" your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Ser- 
" vants, obey in all things your masters according to the 
" flesh ; not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in 
" singleness of heart, fearing God ; and whatsoever ye 
ct do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, 
" knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of 
" the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But 
" he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong 
c< which he hath done ; and there is no respect of persons. 
" Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and 
" equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." 

The passages marked by Italics in the quotation from 
the Ephesians, bear a strict resemblance, not only in sig- 
nification but in terms, to the quotation from the Colos- 
sians. Both the words and the order of the words are in 
many clauses a duplicate of one another. In the Epistle 
to the Colossians, these passages are laid together ; in 
that to the Ephesians, they are divided by intermediate 



Ephes. vi. 1. Td T£/cva> vnaKOvere rotq yovEvcriv v[xav ev Kvpia' rovro 

yap l(TTl SlKaiOV, 

Colos. iii. 20. Td r£Kva 7 vnaKOvers ro'iq yov£v<n yiccra ■navra" rovro yap 
i<TTiv EvdpEcrrov ra Kvpia. 

Ephes. vi. 4. Kal, ol TtarEpsq, //.^ Trapopyi^sre rd tskvcc. vpuv. 
Colos. iii. 21. Ol itarepEq, jW.5j * ipeOt^sre t« rEKva vjaoov. 

Ephes. vi. 5 — 8. Ol SovXoi, v-jraKOVErs roiq Kvptoiq Kara crdpKa, [AErd 
<ip6€ov y.ou rpopov, ev difkorrfci rr\q Kaptiaq upv, aq ra Xpurrw' (x r q Kar 
&<pQa\[AO§ovX£iav coq dv6paitap£o-K0i, dXK' aq dovXoi rov Xpurrov, TCOiovvrEq to 
&i\'t}[jt,a rov ®£0v ek ^vypiq' aer Evvoiaq fiovXEvovrsq rS Kvpia, kou ovk 
•dvOpanoiq' Elftorsq on o lav n %Kacrroq itoi^irri dya6ov, rovro K0f/,ie7rai nvapa 

TQV liv p'lOVf E1T£ Sovkoq, EiTE iXEvdEpOq. 

Colos. ill. 22 . . 24. Ot SovXqi, vtvolkovete Kara, itdvra ro7q Kara 
urdpKa Kvploiq, py) ev o<p9a\(AQ$ov\£iaiq, wq dvOpccndpEO-KOi, aXX' iv dirXor'/jn 
xafiiaq, <po€ov^EVOt rov ®sov' Ka) itav o, ri lav noivjrE, a/c ipv^rjq IpydX^EcrBE, 
d>q ra Kvpia, Ka) ovk dvOpdnoiq, d^orsq on dito Kvpiov dnoXYji^EO-QE rvjv 
avraizoboa-tv rrjq Kkf\povo\Klaq % rep yap Kvpia ~Kpicrra ZovXsvEre, 



napopyfyrE, lectio non spernenda. Griesbach. 
/ 4 



120 HORiE PAULINiE. 

matter, especially by a long digressive allusion to the mys- 
terious union between Christ and his church ; which pos- 
sessing, as Mr. Locke hath well observed, the mind of the 
apostle, from being an incidental thought, grows up into 
the principal subject. The affinity between these two 
passages in signification, in terms, and in the order of 
the words, is closer than can be pointed out between any 
parts of any two epistles in the volume. 

If the reader would see how the same subject is treated 
by a different hand, and how distinguishable it is from the 
production of the same pen, let him turn to the second and 
third chapters of the First Epistle of St. Peter. The duties 
of servants, of wives and of husbands, are enlarged upon 
in that epistle, as they are in the Epistle to the Ephesians ; 
but the subjects both occur in a different order, and the 
train of sentiment subjoined to each is totally unlike. 

3. In two letters issuing from the same person, nearly 
at the same time, and upon the same general occasion, we 
may expect to trace the influence of association in the order 
in which the topics follow one another. Certain ideas 
universally or usually suggest others. Here the order is 
what we call natural, and from such an order nothing can 
be concluded. But when the order is arbitrary, yet alike, 
the concurrence indicates the effect of that principle, by 
which ideas, which have been once joined, commonly revisit 
the thoughts together. The epistles under consideration 
furnish the two following remarkable instances of this 
species of agreement. 

Ephes. iv. 24. " And that ye put on the new man, 
" which after God is created in righteousness and true 
" holiness ; wherefore, putting away lying, speak every 
" man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one 
" of another." * 

Colos. iii. 9. " Lie not one to another ; seeing that 
" ye have put off the old man, with his deeds ; and have 



* Ephes. IV. 24-, 25. Ka< lvtv<ra<rBat tov kocivov avOpwitov, tov Kara 
■©sov y.ricr6evra iv §iKa,io<rvvri kou ocrioTrjTi trie, dXvjdsiai;. ciq dTro6E[/.Evot 
to ;J/£y$o$, XccXeTte dXyOeiav 'tKao-Toq 'jWtra tov nXr[(riov avTov' "ti laph 
dXX'f\Xuv ^iXt\, 



No. I. EPH. iv. 24. v. 20, 21. 121 

" put on the new man, which is renewed in know- 
" ledge/'* 

The vice of " lying," or a correction of that vice, does 
not seem to bear any nearer relation to the " putting on 
" the new man," than a reformation in any other article of 
morals. Yet these two ideas, we see, stand in both 
epistles in immediate connection. 

Ephes. v. 20, 21. " Giving thanks always for all 
" things unto God and the Father, in the name of our 
" Lord Jesus Christ ; submitting yourselves one to an- 
" other, in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves 
" unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." t 

Colos. hi. 17. " Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, 
" do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 
" God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves 
" unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." J 

In both these passages, submission follows giving of 
thanks, without any similitude in the ideas which should 
account for the transition. 

It is not necessary to pursue the comparison between 
the two epistles farther. The argument which results 
from it stands thus : No two other epistles contain a cir- 
cumstance which indicates that they were written at the 
same, or nearly at the same time. No two other epistles 
exhibit so many marks of correspondency and resem- 
blance. If the original which we ascribe to these two 
epistles be the true one, that is, if they were both really 
written by St. Paul, and both sent to their respective 
destination by the same messenger, the similitude is, in 
all points, what should be expected to take place. If they 
were forgeries, then the mention of Tychicus in both 
epistles, and in a manner which shows that he either car- 

* Colos. iii. 9. M'/j \Pev^e(t6e eiq d\\'/jXov<;, d^EK^va-d^Evoi rov ntoCkouov 
avOpccTTOv, <rvv touc, Ttpd^EGiv CtVTOV, kou ivdv a d }AEV '0 t rov dvotKcuvov^EVOv Eiq 
ETCiyvaaiv, 

\ EpheS. V. 20 22. Y.V%Ot,pUTrQVVrE$ TtdvrorE VKEp Ttdvr&V, iv ovopari 

rov Kvpiov yfAuv 'Itj(tov Xpto-Tou, ra ®Ea kou nocrp), V7Vora<T<r6[AEVoi dXK^Xoig 
iv <po€u &eov. At yvvouKEq, role, l^ioiq dv^fdaiv vitordauEQ-Qs, &<; rep Kvplc*. 
^ Colos. iii. 17* Koci tcoLv o, ri dv noi'/jrE, iv Xoja, vj iv '£pya>, itdvroc 
'v ovofAan Kvpiov 'lyo-ov, sv%a,pi<TTOvvTE<; to) @eu kou Ttarp) St 5 avrov. At 
^vvouke^ vitordvcrEcrQE ro7q l^toig dvtpdo-iv, o)q dvrJKSv iv Kvpia. 



122 HORiE PAULINAS. 

ried or accompanied both epistles, was inserted for the 
purpose of accounting- for their similitude ; or else the 
structure of the epistles was designedly adapted to that 
circumstance ; or, lastly, the conformity between the con- 
tents of the forgeries, and what is thus indirectly intimated 
concerning their date, was only a happy accident. Not 
one of these three suppositions will gain credit with a 
reader who peruses the epistles with attention, and who 
reviews the several examples we have pointed out, and 
the observations with which they were accompanied. 



No. II. 

There is such a thing as a peculiar word or phrase 
cleaving, as it were, to the memory of a writer or speaker, 
and presenting itself to his utterance at every turn. When 
we observe this, we call it a cant word, or a cant 
phrase. It is a natural effect of habit ; and would appear 
more frequently than it does, had not the rules of good 
writing taught the ear to be offended with the iteration of 
the same sound, and oftentimes caused us to reject, on that 
account, the word which offered itself first to our recollec- 
tion. With a writer who, like St. Paul, either knew not 
these rules, or disregarded them, such words will not be 
avoided. The truth is, an example of this kind runs 
through several of his epistles, and in the epistle before 
us abounds ; and that is in the word riches (ttXouto^), 
used metaphorically as an augmentative of the idea to 
which it happens to be subjoined. Thus, " the riches of 
" his glory," " his riches in glory," " riches of the glory 
" of his inheritance," " riches of the glory of this mys- 
" tery," Rom. ix. 23, Ephes. hi. 16, Ephes. i. 18, Colos. 
i. 27 ; riches of his grace," twice in the Ephesians, i. 7> 
and ii. 7 > " riches of the full assurance of understanding," 
Colos. ii. 2 ; " riches of his goodness," Rom. ii. 4 ; 
" riches of the wisdom of God," Rom. xi. 33 ; " riches 
" of Christ," Ephes. iii. 8. In a like sense the adjec 
tive, Rom. x. 12, " rich unto all that call upon him ; 
Ephes. ii. 4. " rich in mercy ; " 1 Tim. vi. 18, " rich 



99 






No. II. & III. EPH. iii., 16, &c. 123 

in good works/' Also the adverb, Colos. iii. 16, "let 
" the word of Christ dwell in you richly" This figura- 
tive use of the word, though so familiar to St. Paul, does 
not occur in any part of the New Testament, except once 
in the Epistle of St. James, ii. 5 : " Hath not God chosen 
"the poor of this world, rich in faith?" where it is 
manifestly suggested by the antithesis. I propose the 
frequent, yet seemingly unaffected use of this phrase, in 
the epistle before us, as one internal mark of its genuine- 
ness. 



No. III. 

There is another singularity in St. Paul's style, which, 
wherever it is found, may be deemed a badge of authen- 
ticity ; because, if it were noticed, it would not, I think, 
be imitated, inasmuch as it almost always produces em- 
barrassment and interruption in the reasoning. This sin- 
gularity is a species of digression which may properly, I 
think, be denominated going off at a tcord. It is turning 
aside from the subject upon the occurrence of some par- 
ticular word, forsaking the train of thought then in hand, 
and entering upon a parenthetic sentence in which that 
word is the prevailing term. I shall lay before the reader 
some examples of this, collected from the other epistles, 
and then propose two examples of it which are found in 
the Epistle to the Ephesians. 2 Cor. ii. 14, at the word 
savour : " Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth 
" us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour 
** of his knowledge by us in every place ; (for we are unto 
" God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, 
" and in them that perish ; to the one we are the savour 
" of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life 
" unto life ; and who is sufficient for these things ?) For 
u we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, 
" but as of sincerity, but as of God ; in the sight of God 
** speak we in Christ." Again, 2 Cor. iii. 1, at the word 
" epistle : " Need we, as some others, epistles of com- 
" mendation to you, or of commendation from you ? (ye 



124 U0R7E PAULINA. 

" are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read 
" of all men ; forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to 
" be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not 
" with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in 
(i tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.") The 
position of the words in the original, shows more strongly 
than in the translation that it was the occurrence of the 
word e7ri(rro7\.rj which gave birth to the sentence that fol- 
lows. 2 Cor. iii. 1 : EI ^ ^pr^asv, ayg rivsg, (Tixrra- 
rixcbu £7no*ToAtov wpbg u[xag, r\ 1% ufxcbu (TVO'toltitcwv ; tJ 
sTTiG-roT^ri yftwv u[xslg s(tts 9 £yysypa[Afj.evr} iu roug xaphioug 
yj[aq)V 9 yiva)o-}to[j.Evr) xa) avayivwG-xo^svrj utto wavTOiv 

avQpO)7rO)V 9 $OLV£po6[JLSVOl OTl £(TT£ S7Tl<7T0'hr i *Kpl(TTOV 

hiOLxovrfis7(TOL u$>' vfubv, eyy£ypa.[x^iurj ov [xeXavi, aXXa 
7TVEUfJLaTi Ssou %covto$* ouk Iv tt'KolQ TuBivpug, aXX* h 
tt'KolQ xafiiag (rapxluoLig. 

Again, 2 Cor. iii. 12, &c, at the word vail: ct Seeing 
" then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of 
" speech : and not as Moses, which put a vail over his 
" face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look 
" to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds 
" were blinded ; for until this day remaineth the same 
" vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, 
" which vail is done away in Christ ; but even unto this 
" day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart : 
" nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail 
" shall be taken away : (now the Lord is that Spirit ; and 
" where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.) But 
" we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory 
" of the Lord, are changed into the same image from 
" glory t0 g" lor y> even as D 7 tne Spirit of the Lord. — 
" Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have 
" received mercy, we faint not." 

Who sees not that this whole allegory of the vail arises 
entirely out of the occurrence of the word, in telling us 
that " Moses put a vail over his face," and that it drew 
the apostle away from the proper subject of his discourse, 
the dignity of the office in which he was engaged? which 
subject he fetches up again almost in the words, with 
which he had left it : " Therefore, seeing we have this 



No. III. & IV. EPH. iv. 8—11. v. 12—15. 125 

" ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." 
The sentence which he had before been going on with, 
and in which he had been interrupted by the vail, was, 
" Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great 
" plainness of speech." 

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the reader will remark 
two instances, in which the same habit of composition ob- 
tains ; he will recognize the same pen. One he will find, 
iv. 8 — 11, at the word ascended: "Wherefore he saith, 
" When he ascended up on high, he led captivity cap- 
" tive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, 
" what is it but that he also descended first into the 
" lower parts of the earth ? He that descended is the 
" same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that 
" he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apo- 
" sties," &c. 

The other appears, v. 12 — 15, at the word light: " For 
"it is a shame even to speak of those things which are 
" done of them in secret : but all things that are re- 
" proved, are made manifest by the light ; (for whatso- 
" ever doth make manifest, is light ; wherefore he saith, 
" Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
" and Christ shall give thee light:) see then that ye walk 
" circumspectly." 



No. IV. 

Although it does not appear to have ever been disputed 
that the epistle before us was written by St. Paul, yet it 
is well known that a doubt has long been entertained con- 
cerning the persons to whom it was addressed. The 
question is founded partly in some ambiguity in the ex- 
ternal evidence. Marcion, a heretic of the second century, 
as quoted by Tertullian, a father in the beginning of the 
third, calls it the Epistle to the Laodiceans. From what 
we know of Marcion, his judgment is little to be relied 
upon ; nor is it perfectly clear that Marcion was rightly 
understood by Tertullian. If, however, Marcion be 



126 HOR^ PAULINA. 

brought to prove that some copies in his time gave h 
Aoco^ixsla in the superscription, his testimony, if it be 
truly interpreted, is not diminished by his heresy ; for, as 
Grotius observes, " cur in ed re mentiretur, nihil erat 
" causes." The name h 'E<£>sVo>, in the first verse, upon 
which word singly depends the proof that the epistle was 
written to the Ephesians, is not read in all the manu- 
scripts now extant. I admit, however, that the external 
evidence preponderates with a manifest excess on the side 
of the received reading. The objection therefore prin- 
cipally arises from the contents of the epistle itself, which, 
in many respects, militate with the supposition that it was 
written to the church of Ephesus. According to the 
history, St. Paul had passed two whole years at Ephesus, 
Acts, xix. 10. And in this point, viz. of St. Paul having 
preached for a considerable length of time at Ephesus, 
the history is confirmed by the two Epistles to the 
Corinthians, and by the two Epistles to Timothy: "I will 
" tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost," 1 Cor. xvi. 8. " We 
" would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came 
" to us in Asia," 2 Cor. i. 8. " As I besought thee to 
" abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia," 
1 Tim. i. 3. " And in how many things he ministered 
" to me at Ephesus, thou knowest well," 2 Tim. i. 18. 
I adduce these testimonies, because, had it been a com- 
petition of credit between the history and the epistle, I 
should have thought myself bound to have preferred the 
epistle. Now, every epistle which St. Paul wrote to 
churches which he himself had founded, or which he had 
visited, abounds with references and appeals to what had 
passed during the time that he was present amongst 
them ; whereas there is not a text in the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, from which we can collect that he had ever 
been at Ephesus at all. The two Epistles to the 
Corinthians, the Epistle to the Galatians, the Epistle to 
the Philippians, and the two Epistles to the Thessa- 
lonians, are of this class ; and they are full of allusions to 
the apostle's history, his reception, and his conduct, whilst 
amongst them : the total want of which, in the epistle 
before us, is very difficult to account for, if it was in 



No. IV. EPH. i. 1. 127 

truth written to the church of Ephesus, in which city he 
had resided for so long- a time. 

This is the first and strongest objection. But farther, 
the Epistle to the Colossians was addressed to a church 
in which St. Paul had never been. This we infer from 
the first verse of the second chapter : " For I would that 
" ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for 
" them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my 
" face in the flesh." There could be no propriety in thus 
joining the Colossians and Laodiceans with those " who 
" had not seen his face in the flesh/' if they did not also 
belong to the same description.* Now, his address to 
the Colossians, whom he had not visited, is precisely the 
same as his address to the Christians to whom he wrote 
in the epistle which we are now considering : " We 
" give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus 
" Christ, praying always for you, since ice heard of your 
"faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have 
" to all the saints," Col. i. 3, 4. Thus he speaks to the 
Colossians : in the epistle before us, as follows : " Where- 
" fore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord 
" Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give 
" thanks for you in my prayers," i. 15. The terms of 
this address are observable. The words " having heard 
" of your faith and love," are the very words, we see, 
which he uses towards strangers ; and it is not probable 
that he should employ the same in accosting a church in 
which he had long exercised his ministry, and whose 
" faith and love" he must have personally known. t The 

* Dr. Lardner contends against the validity of this conclusion ; 
but, I think, without success. Lardner, vol. xiv. p. 473. edit. 
1757. 

f Mr. Locke endeavours to avoid this difficulty, by explaining 
" their faith, of which St. Paul had heard," to mean the stead- 
fastness of their persuasion, that they were called into the kingdom 
of God without subjection to the Mosaic institution. But this 
interpretation seems to me extremely hard; for, in the manner in 
which faith is here joined with Jove, in the expression, (i your faith 
and love," it could not be meant to denote any particular tenet 
which distinguished one set of Christians from others ; forasmuch 
as the expression describes the general virtues of the Christian 
profession. Vide Locke in loc. 



128 HORiE PAULINiE. 

Epistle to the Romans was written before St. Paul had 
been at Rome ; and his address to them runs in the same 
strain with that just now quoted : " I thank my God, 
" through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is 
" spoken of throughout the whole world," Rom. i. 8. 
Let us now see what was the form in which our apostle 
was accustomed to introduce his epistles, when he wrote 
to those with whom he was already acquainted. To the 
Corinthians it was this : " I thank my God always on 
" your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you 
" by Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. i. 4. To the Philippians : 
" I thank my God upon every remembrance of you," 
Phil. i. 3. To the Thessalonians : " We give thanks to 
" God always for you all, making mention of you in our 
" prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of 
" faith, and labour of love," 1 Thess. i. % 3. To 
Timothy : "I thank God, whom I serve from my fore- 
" fathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I 
" have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and 
" day," 2 Tim. i. 3. In these quotations, it is usually 
" his remembrance, and never his hearing of them, 
which he makes the subject of his thankfulness to God. 

As great difficulties stand in the way of supposing the 
epistle before us to have been written to the church of 
Ephesus, so I think it probable that it is actually the 
Epistle to the Laodiceans, referred to in the fourth 
chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians. The text which 
contains that reference is this : " When this epistle is 
" read among you, cause that it be read also in the church 
" of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle 
" from Laodicea," iv. 16. The " epistle from Laodicea" 
was an epistle sent by St. Paul to that church, and by them 
transmitted to Colosse. The two churches were mutually 
to communicate the epistles they had received. This is 
the way in which the direction is explained by the greater 
part of commentators, and is the most probable sense 
that can be given to it. It is also probable that the 
epistle alluded to was an epistle which had been received 
by the church of Laodicea lately. It appears, then, with 
a considerable degree of evidence, that there existed an 



• No. IV. EPH. i. 1. 1-29 

epistle of St. Paul's nearly of the same date with the 
Epistle to the Colossians, and an epistle directed to a 
church (for such the church of Laodicea was) in which 
St. Paul had never been. What has been observed con- 
cerning the epistle before us, shows that it answers per- 
fectly to that character. 

Nor does the mistake seem very difficult to account 
for. Whoever inspects the map of Asia Minor will see, 
that a person proceeding from Rome to Laodicea would 
probably land at Ephesus, as the nearest frequented sea- 
port in that direction. Might not Tychicus then, in pass- 
ing through Ephesus, communicate to the Christians of 
that place the letter, with which he was charged ? And 
might not copies of that letter be multiplied and preserved 
at Ephesus ? Might not some of the copies drop the 
words of designation Iv rrj AoLofiixsloc *, which it was of 
no consequence to an Ephesian to retain ? Might not 
copies of the letter come out into the Christian church at 
large from Ephesus ; and might not this give occasion to 
a belief that the letter was written to that church ? And, 
lastly, might not this belief produce the error which we 
suppose to have crept into the inscription ? 

* And it is remarkable that there seem to have been some 
ancient copies without the words of designation, either the words 
in Ephesus, or the words in Laodicea. St. Basil, a writer of the 
fourth century, speaking of the present epistle, has this very sin- 
gular passage: " And writing to the Ephesians, as truly united to 
" him who is through knowledge, he (Paul) calleth them in a 
" peculiar sense such who are ; saying, to the saints who are, and 
" (or eveii) the faithful in Christ Jesus ; for so those before us have 
" transmitted it, and we have found it in ancient copies." Dr. Mill 
interprets (and, notwithstanding some objections that have been 
made to him, in my opinion rightly interprets) these words of 
Basil, as declaring that this father had seen certain copies of the 
epistle in which the words " in Ephesus " were wanting. And the 
passage, I think, must be considered as Basil's fanciful way of ex- 
plaining what was really a corrupt and defective reading ; for I do 
not believe it possible that the author of the epistle could have 
originally ^written dyioiq ro7; ola-iv, without any name of place to 
follow it. 



130 HORJE PAULINiE. 



No. V. 

As our epistle purports to have been written during 
St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, which lies beyond the 
period to which the Acts of the Apostles brings up his 
history ; and as we have seen and acknowledged that the 
epistle contains no reference to any transaction at Ephesus 
during the apostle's residence in that city, we cannot 
expect that it should supply many marks of agreement 
with the narrative. One coincidence, however, occurs, 
and a coincidence of that minute and less obvious kind, 
which, as hath been repeatedly observed, is of all others 
the most to be relied upon. 

Chap. vi. 19, 20, we read, " praying for me, that I 
" may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery 
" of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds." 
" In bonds, 7 ' iv aXucrsi, in a chain. In the twenty-eighth 
chapter of the Acts we are informed, that Paul, after his 
arrival at Rome, was suffered to dwell by himself with a 
soldier that kept him. Dr. Lardner has shown that this 
mode of custody was in use amongst the Romans, and 
that whenever it was adopted, the prisoner was bound to 
the soldier by a single chain ; in reference to which 
St. Paul, in the twentieth verse of this chapter, tells the 
Jews, whom he had assembled, <c For this cause there- 
" fore have I called for you to see you, and to speak with 
" you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound 
" with this chain," ttjv a"hu<riv tolvtyiv Trsplxeifxoii. It is 
in exact conformity, therefore, with the truth of St. Paul's 
situation at the time, that he declares of himself in the 
epistle, 7rpscr^£ua) Iv oL\6gsi. And the exactness is the 
more remarkable, as aXua-ig (a chain) is nowhere used in 
the singular number to express any other kind of custody. 
When the prisoner's hands or feet were bound together, 
the word was ^so-^o) (bonds), as in the twenty-sixth chap- 
ter [v. 29.] of the Acts, where Paul replies to Agrippa, 
" I would to God that not only thou, but also all that 
" hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether 
" such as I am, except these bonds," 7raps7crog rwv §so-[ubu 



No. V. EPH. vi. 19, 20. 131 

TotJTft>v. When the prisoner was confined between two 
soldiers, as in the case of Peter, Acts, xii. 6, two chains 
were employed ; and it is said, upon his miraculous de- 
liverance, that the " chains" (ahtxrsig, in the plural) 
" fell from his hands." Asa-frog the noun, and ftsopLOu the 
verb, being general terms, were applicable to this in com- 
mon with any other species of personal coercion ; but 
oiXiKTig, in the singular number, to none but this. 

If it can be suspected that the writer of the present 
epistle, who, in no other particular, appears to have availed 
himself of the information concerning St. Paul delivered 
in the Acts, had, in this verse, borrowed the word, which 
he read in that book, and had adapted his expression to 
what he found there recorded of St. Paul's treatment at 
Rome ; in short, that the coincidence here noted was 
effected by craft and design ; I think it a strong reply to 
remark, that, in the parallel passage [iv. 3.] of the Epistle 
to the Colossians, the same allusion is not preserved : the 
words there are, " praying also for us, that God would 
" open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery 
" of Christ, for which / am also in bonds" hf o xa) 
§i§s[Aa.i. After what has been shown in a preceding num- 
ber, there can be little doubt but that these two epistles 
were written by the same person. If the writer, there- 
fore, sought for, and fraudulently inserted, the correspond- 
ency into one epistle, why did he not do it in the other ? 
A real prisoner might use either general words, which 
comprehended this amongst many other modes of custody; 
or might use appropriate words, which specified this, and 
distinguished it from any other mode. It would be acci- 
dental which form of expression he fell upon. But an 
impostor, who had the art, in one place, to employ the 
appropriate term for the purpose of fraud, would have 
used it in both places. 



k 9. 



132 HORiE PAULINiE. 



CHAR VII. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

No. I. 

When a transaction is referred to in such a manner, as 
that the reference is easily and immediately understood by 
those who are beforehand, or from other quarters, ac- 
quainted with the fact, but is obscure or imperfect, or 
requires investigation, or a comparison of different parts, 
in order to be made clear to other readers, the transaction 
so referred to is probably real ; because, had it been fic- 
titious, the writer would have set forth his story more 
fully and plainly, not merely as conscious of the fiction, 
but as conscious that his readers could have no other 
knowledge of the subject of his allusion than from the 
information of which he put them in possession. 

The account of Epaphroditus, in the Epistle to the 
Philippians, of his journey to Rome, and of the business 
which brought him thither, is the article to which I mean 
to apply this observation. There are three passages in 
the epistle, which relate to this subject. The first, i. 7 : 
" Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, be- 
" cause I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my 
" bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the 
i( gospel, ye all are (ruyxoivcovoi [jlov rr\g %a,piTog, joint 
" contributors to the gift which I have received." # No- 
thing more is said in this place. In the latter part of the 
second chapter, and at the distance of half the epistle from 

* Pearce, I believe, was the first commentator who gave this 
sense to the expression ; and I believe also, that his exposition is 
now generally assented to. He interprets in the same sense the 
phrase in the fifth verse, which our translation renders " your 
fellowship in the gospel;" but which in the original is not kowccvI^ 

tqv avccyyEXiov, 01% KOivcovia, iv rat ivayyikiu ; but KOivwvia slq to evccyyi- 

Xtov. [James Peirce of Exon is the commentator here referred 
to, in his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistle of St. Paul to the 
Philippians, London, 1725.] 



No. I. PHILIP, i. 7. ii. 25—30. iv. 10—18. 133 

the last quotation, the subject appears again : " Yet I 
" supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my 
" brother and coinpanion in labour, and fellow soldier, 
" but your messenger, and he that ministered to my 
" ivants : for he longed after you all, and was full of 
" heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been 
" sick : for indeed he was sick nigh unto death ; but God 
" had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me 
" also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 1 sent 
" him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see 
" him again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less 
" sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all 
i( gladness ; and hold such in reputation : because for the 
" work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding 
" his life to supply your lack of service toward me" 
" ii. 25 — 30. The matter is here dropped, and no far- 
ther mention made of it till it is taken up near the con- 
clusion of the epistle, as follows : " But I rejoiced in the 
' Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath 
' flourished again ; wherein ye were also careful, but ye 
6 lacked opportunity : not that I speak in respect of 
c want ; for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, 
6 therewith to be content. I know both how to be 
' abased, and I know how to abound ; every where and 
' in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be 
* hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do 
4 all things through Christ which strengthened! me. 
6 Notwithstanding, ye have well done that ye did com- 
6 municate with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians, 
( know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when 
4 I departed from Macedonia, no church communi- 
' cated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but 
6 ye only : for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and 
' again unto my necessity : not because I desire a gift ; 
' but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. 
' But I have all, and abound ; I am full, having received 
c of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you." 
iv. 10 — 18. To the Philippian reader, who knew that 
contributions were wont to be made in that church for the 
apostle's subsistence and relief, that the supply which they 

k 3 



134 HOR^E PAULINA. 

were accustomed to send to him had been delayed by the 
want of opportunity, that Epaphroditus had undertaken 
the charge of conveying their liberality to the hands of the 
apostle, that he had acquitted himself of this commission at 
the peril of his life, by hastening to Rome under the op- 
pression of a grievous sickness ; to a reader who knew all 
this beforehand, every line in the above quotations would 
be plain and clear. But how is it with a stranger ? The 
knowledge of these several particulars is necessary to the 
perception and explanation of the references ; yet that 
knowledge must be gathered from a comparison of pas- 
sages lying at a great distance from one another. Texts 
must be interpreted by texts long subsequent to them, 
which necessarily produces embarrassment and suspense. 
The passage quoted from the beginning of the epistle 
contains an acknowledgment, on the part of the apostle, 
of the liberality which the Philippians had exercised to- 
wards him ; but the allusion is so general and indeter- 
minate, that had nothing more been said in the sequel of 
the epistle, it would hardly have been applied to this oc- 
casion at all. In the second quotation, Epaphroditus is 
declared to have " ministered to the apostle's wants," and 
" to have supplied their lack of service towards him : " 
but how, that is, at whose expense, or from what fund, 
he u ministered," or what was the "lack of service" 
which he supplied, are left very much unexplained, till we 
arrive at the third quotation, where we find that Epaphro- 
ditus " ministered to St. Paul's wants," only by convey- 
ing to his hands the contributions of the Philippians : " I 
" am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things 
" which were sent from you:" and that " the lack of 
" service which he supplied" was a delay or interruption 
of their accustomed bounty, occasioned by the want of op- 
portunity : "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at 
™ the last your care of me hath flourished again ; wherein 
" ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity." The 
affair at length comes out clear ; but it comes out by piece- 
meal. The clearness is the result of the reciprocal illus- 
tration of divided texts. Should any one choose therefore 
to insinuate, that this whole story of Epaphroditus, of his 



No. II. PHILIP, ii. 27. 135 

journey, his errand, his sickness, or even his existence, 
might, for what we know, have no other foundation than 
in the invention of the forger of the epistle ; I answer, 
that a forger would have set forth his story connectedly, 
and also more fully and more perspicuously. If the epistle 
be authentic, and the transaction real, then every thing 
which is said concerning Epaphroditus and his commission, 
would be clear to those into whose hands the epistle was 
expected to come. Considering the Philippians as his 
readers, a person might naturally write upon the subject, 
as the author of the epistle has written ; but there is no 
supposition of forgery with which it will suit. 



No. II. 

The history of Epaphroditus supplies another observ- 
ation : " Indeed he was sick, nigh unto death ; but God 
" had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me 
" also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." [ii. 27* ] 
In this passage, no intimation is given that Epaphroditus's 
recovery was miraculous. It is plainly, I think, spoken 
of as a natural event. This instance, together with one 
in the Second Epistle [iv. 20. ] to Timothy (" Trophimus 
have I left at Miletum sick"), affords a proof that the 
power of performing cures, and, by parity of reason, of 
working other miracles, was a power which only visited 
the apostles occasionally, and did not at all depend upon 
their own will. Paul undoubtedly would have healed 
Epaphroditus if he could. Nor, if the power of working 
cures had awaited his disposal, would he have left his 
fellow traveller at Miletum sick. This, I think, is a fair 
observation upon the instances adduced ; but it is not the 
observation I am concerned to make. It is more for the 
purpose of my argument to remark, that forgery, upon 
such an occasion, would not have spared a miracle ; much 
less would it have introduced St. Paul professing the 
utmost anxiety for the safety of his friend, yet acknow- 
ledging himself unable to help him : which he does almost 
expressly, in the case of Trophimus, for he * left him 

k 4 



136 HORiE PAULINJE. 

" sick ;" and virtually in the passage before us, in which 
he felicitates himself upon the recovery of Epaphroditus, 
in terms which almost exclude the supposition of any 
supernatural means being employed to effect it. This is a 
reserve which nothing but truth would have imposed. 



No. III. 

Chap. iv. 15, 16. " Now, ye Philippians, know also 
" that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed 
" from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as 
" concerning giving and receiving, but ye only : for even 
" in Thessalpnica ye sent once and again unto my ne- 
" cessity." 

It will be necessary to state the Greek of this passage, 
because our translation does not, I think, give the sense 
of it accurately. 

O'l&OLTS &£ XOU Uft.s7g, *&l7\l7T7r7lG'l0l ) OTl SU OLpffl TOU 

sha.yys'Xlo\} y ore s^Sjxflov euro M.axe$oviag 9 ov^s^ta [xoi 
sxx7^7}o-iot sxoiv<x>vrpsv slg \oyov rjoo~swg xod "Xr^icog, s\ [ay) 
u{xs7g fiovQt, OTi xa) sv 0ffO"<raXoi//xY) xa) a7ra% xoti Kig slg 
tyjU xpsiav [j.oi S7T stars' 

The reader will please to direct his attention to the 
corresponding particles on and on xou, which connect the 
words Iv app^f) tou svayys7dou, ors s^rfk^ov cbro Molxs- 
§onag, with the words h Qso-o-ocT^ovixy), and denote, as I 
interpret the passage, two distinct donations, or rather 
donations at two distinct periods, one at Thessalonica, 
a.7ra§ xou $}g, the other after his departure from Mace- 
donia, ors s^7]7^Sov oi7ro Maxshovlocg. * I would render 
the passage, so as to mark these different periods, thus : 
" Now, ye Philippians, know also that in the beginning 

* Luke ii» 15. Ka.) syive.ro-, ug anvj\9oy cm avruv d<; rov ovpavov ol 

ayysXoi, " as the angels were gone away," i. e. after their depar- 
ture, ol icoiytivzq elrcov itpoq dXX'qXovq. Mat. xii. 43, "Orscv (js to aKctOecprov 

nvevy.cz, eZixfy diib tov dvOpsevov, " when the unclean spirit is gone," 
i. e. after his departure, hipy^erai. John, xiii. 30, "OTe e£vj\8s 
('IouSa?) " when he was gone," i. e. after his departure, Keyei, 'lyo-ov;. 

Acts, X. 7, at; Ss dnYJkBev 6 dyyekog o KaXav ra Kopv/]kta } " and when 

" the angel which spake unto him was departed/' i. e. after his 
departure, (pav^crag SJo rav oikztuv, &c. 



No. III. PHILIP, iv. 15, 16. 137 

" of the gospel, when I was departed from Macedonia, 
" no church communicated with me as concerning- giving 
" aud receiving, but ye only ; and that also in Thessa- 
" lonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity." Now 
with this exposition of the passage compare 2 Cor. xi. 
8, 9 *. "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them 
" to do you service : and when I was present with you 
" and wanted, I was chargeable to no man ; for that 
" which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from 
" Macedonia supplied." 

It appears from St. Paul's history, as related in the 
Acts of the Apostles, that upon leaving Macedonia he 
passed, after a very short stay at Athens, into Achaia. 
It appears, secondly, from the quotation out of the Epistle 
to the Corinthians, that in Achaia he accepted no pecu- 
niary assistance from the converts of that country ; but 
that he drew a supply for his wants from the Macedonian 
Christians. Agreeably whereunto it appears, in the third 
place, from the text which is the subject of the present 
number, that the brethren in Philippi, a city of Macedonia, 
had followed him with their munificence, ore i^xSou awo 
Maxzhovlag, when he was departed from Macedonia, that 
is, when he was come into Achaia. 

The passage under consideration affords another circum- 
stance of agreement deserving of our notice. The gift 
alluded to in the Epistle to the Philippians is stated to have 
been made " in the beginning of the gospel." This phrase 
is most naturally explained to signify the first preaching 
of the gospel in these parts ; viz. on that side of the 
iEgean sea. The succours referred to in the Epistle to 
the Corinthians, as received from Macedonia, are stated 
to have been received by him upon his first visit to the 
peninsula of Greece. The dates therefore assigned to the 
donation in the two epistles agree ; yet is the date in one 
ascertained very incidentally, namely, by the considerations 
which fix the date of the epistle itself ; and in the other, 
by an expression (" the beginning of the gospel") much 
too general to have been used, if the text had been penned 
with any view to the correspondency we are remarking. 

Farther, the phrase, " in the beginning of the gospel," 



138 HORJE PAULINJE. 

raises an idea in the reader's mind, that the gospel had 
been preached there more than once. The writer would 
hardly have called the visit to which he refers the " be- 
" ginning of the gospel," if he had not also visited them 
in some other stage of it. The fact corresponds with this 
idea. If we consult the sixteenth and twentieth chapters 
of the Acts, we shall find that St. Paul, before his im- 
prisonment at Rome, during which this epistle purports 
to have been written, had been twice in Macedonia, and 
each time at Philippi. [He had heen three times in Ma- 
cedonia, A. xvi. 11, 12; xx. 1 ; ibid, vv. 3 . , 6; the first 
and third time certainly at Philippi : and it can hardly be 
supposed otherwise on the second occasion.] 



No. IV. 

That Timothy had been along with St. Paul at Philippi 
is a fact which seems to be implied in this epistle twice. 
First, he joins in the salutation with which the epistle 
opens : " Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus 
" Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at 
" Philippi ." Secondly, and more directly, the point is 
inferred from what is said concerning him, ii. 19 : " But 
" I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly 
" unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I 
" know your state ; for I have no man like minded, who 
" will naturally care for your state ; for all seek their 
" own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's : but ye 
" know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, 
" he hath served with me in the gospel." Had Timothy's 
presence with St. Paul at Philippi, when he preached the 
gospel there, been expressly remarked in the Acts of the 
Apostles, this quotation might be thought to contain a 
contrived adaptation to the history ; although, even in 
that case, the averment, or rather the allusion in the 
epistle, is too oblique to afford much room for such sus- 
picion. But the truth is, that in the history of St. Paul's 
transactions at Philippi, which occupies the greatest part 
of the sixteenth chapter of the Acts, no mention is made 



No. IV. & V. PHILIP, ii. 19. i. 12. 14, &c. 139 

of Timothy at all. What appears concerning Timothy in 
the history, so far as relates to the present subject, is this : 
" When Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, behold a cer- 
" tain disciple was there, named Timotheus, whom Paul 
" would have to go forth with him/' [A. xvi. 1.] The 
narrative then proceeds with the account of St. Paul's 
progress through various provinces of the Lesser Asia, 
till it brings him down to Troas. At Troas he was 
warned in a vision to pass over into Macedonia. In obe- 
dience to which he crossed the iEgean sea to Samothracia, 
the next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi. 
His preaching, miracles, and persecutions at Philippi, 
follow next ; after which Paul and his company, when 
they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, came 
to Thessalonica, and from Thessalonica to Bersea. From 
Bersea the brethren sent away Paul ; u but Silas and 
" Timotheus abode there still." [A. xvii. 14.] The 
itinerary, of which the above is an abstract, is undoubtedly 
sufficient to support an inference that Timothy was along 
with St. Paul at Philippi. We find them setting out to- 
gether upon this progress from Derbe, in Lycaonia ; we 
find them together, near the conclusion of it, at Bereea, in 
Macedonia. It is highly probable, therefore, that they 
came together to Philippi, through which their route be- 
tween these two places lay. If this be thought probable, 
it is sufficient. For what I wish to be observed is, that 
in comparing, upon this subject, the epistle with the his- 
tory, we do not find a recital in one place of what is re- 
lated in another ; but that we find, what is much more to 
be relied upon, an oblique allusion to an implied fact. 



No. V. 

Our epistle purports to have been written near the con- 
clusion of St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, and after a 
residence in that city of considerable duration. These 
circumstances are made out by different intimations, and 
the intimations upon the subject preserve among them- 
selves a just consistency, and a consistency certainly un= 



140 HOR^ PAULXNiE. 

meditated. First, trie apostle had already been a prisoner 
at Rome so long, as that the reputation of his bonds, and 
of his constancy under them, had contributed to advance 
the success of the gospel : " But I would ye should un- 
" der stand, brethren, that the things which happened 
" unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of 
" the gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are mani- 
" fest in all the palace, and in all other places ; and 
" many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident 
" by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word 
" without fear/' [i. 12 . . 14.] Secondly, the account 
given of Epaphroditus imports, that St. Paul, when he 
wrote the epistle, had been in Rome a considerable time : 
" He longed after^you all, and was full of heaviness, be- 
" because that ye had heard that he had been sick." 
pi. 26.] Epaphroditus was with St. Paul at Rome. 
He had been sick. The Philippians had heard of his 
sickness, and he again had received an account how much 
they had been affected by the intelligence. The passing 
and repassing of these advices must necessarily have occu- 
pied a large portion of time, and must have all taken 
place during St. Paul's residence at Rome. Thirdly, 
after a residence at Rome thus proved to have been of 
considerable duration, he now regards the decision of his 
fate as nigh at hand. He contemplates either alternative, 
that of his deliverance, ii. 23, " Him therefore (Timothy) 
" I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how 
" it will go with me ; but I trust in the Lord that I also 
" myself shall come shortly :" that of his condemnation, 
17, " Yea, and if I be offered* upon the sacrifice and ser- 
" vice of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." This 
consistency is material, if the consideration of it be con- 
fined to the epistle. It is farther material, as it agrees, 
with respect to the duration of St. Paul's first imprison- 
ment at Rome, with the account delivered in the Acts, 
which, having brought the apostle to Rome, closes the 
history by telling us " that he dwelt there two whole 
" years in his own hired house." 

* 5 AXX' el Kcci (nrlvZoyMi In) rrj ^vala, Tvjg ntixrrzas i5/xwv, if my blood 

be poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice of your faith. 



No. VI. PHILIP, i. 23. 141 



No. VI. 



Chap. i. S3. " For I am in a strait betwixt two, 
" having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ ; which 
" is far better." 

With this compare 2 Cor. v. 8. " We are confident 
" and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to 
" be present with the Lord." 

The sameness of sentiment in these two quotations is 
obvious. I rely however not so much upon that, as upon 
the similitude in the train of thought which in each epistle 
leads up to this sentiment, and upon the suitableness of 
that train of thought to the circumstances under which the 
epistles purport to have been written. This, I conceive, 
bespeaks the production of the same mind, and of a mind 
operating upon real circumstances. The sentiment is in 
both places preceded by the contemplation of imminent 
personal danger. To the Philippians he writes, in the 
twentieth verse of this chapter, " According to my earnest 
" expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be 
" ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so noiu 
" also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it 
" be by life or by death." To the Corinthians, " Troubled 
" on every side, yet not distressed ; perplexed, but not 
" in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, 
" but not destroyed ; always bearing about in the body 
" the dying of the Lord Jesus." [2 Cor. iv. 8 , . 10.] 
This train of reflection is continued to the place from 
whence the words which we compare are taken. The 
two epistles, though written at different times, from 
different places, and to different churches, were both 
written under circumstances which would naturally recal 
to the author's mind the precarious condition of his life, 
and the perils which constantly awaited him. When the 
Epistle to the Philippians was written, the author was a 
prisoner at Rome, expecting his trial. When the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians was written, he had lately 
escaped a danger in which he had given himself over for 
lost. The epistle opens with a recollection of this sub- 



142 HORiE PAULINA. 

ject, and the impression accompanied the writer's thoughts 
throughout. 

I know that nothing is easier than to transplant into a 
forged epistle a sentiment or expression which is found in 
a true one ; or, supposing both epistles to he forged by 
the same hand, to insert the same sentiment or expression 
in both. But the difficulty is to introduce it in just and 
close connection with the train of thought going before, 
and with a train of thought apparently generated by the 
circumstances under which the epistle is written. In two 
epistles, purporting to be written on different occasions, 
and in different periods of the author's history, this pro- 
priety would not easily be managed. 



No. VII. 

Chap. i. 29, 30 ; ii. 1, 2. " For unto you is given in 
" the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also 
" to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which 
" ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. If there be, 
" therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of 
" love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and 
" mercies ; fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having 
" the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." 

With this compare Acts xvi. 22 : "And the multitude 
" (at Philippi) rose up against them (Paul and Silas) ; 
" and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and com- 
" manded to beat them ; and when they had laid many 
" stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging 
" the jailer to keep them safely ; who, having received 
" such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and 
" made their feet fast in the stocks." 

The passage in the epistle is very remarkable. I know 
not an example in any writing of a juster pathos, or which 
more truly represents the workings of a warm and affec- 
tionate mind, than what is exhibited in the quotation be- 
fore us.* The apostle reminds his Philippians of their 

* The original is very spirited. E* nq olv na,pa,K\y)<Ti$ h Xpio-r$, &l n 
irccpapvOiov aydvy)^ zl rig KQivmia vvevfA&TQt;, el rivet (ns'ha.'yyya, hoc) ofcrip- 
joco<, n\Yipd<rcx,Te (aov t^v yjxpa,v.\ 



No. I. COL. i. 24. 143 

being* joined with himself in the endurance of persecution 
for the sake of Christ. He conjures them, by the ties of 
their common profession and their common sufferings, to 
" fulfil his joy ; " to complete, by the unity of their faith, 
and by their mutual love, that joy with which the in- 
stances he had received of their zeal and attachment had 
inspired his breast. Now if this was the real effusion of 
St. Paul's mind, of which it bears the strongest internal 
character, then we have in the words " the same conflict 
" which ye saw in me/' an authentic confirmation of so 
much of the apostle's history in the Acts, as relates to his 
transactions at Philippi ; and through that of the intel- 
ligence and general fidelity of the historian. 



CHAP. VIII. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

No. I. 

There is a circumstance of conformity between St. 
Paul's history and his letters, especially those which were 
written during his first imprisonment at Rome, and more 
especially the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, 
which, being too close to be accounted for from accident, 
yet too indirect and latent to be imputed to design, can- 
not easily be resolved into any other original than truth. 
Which circumstance is this, that St. Paul in these epistles 
attributes his imprisonment not to his preaching of Chris- 
tianity, but to his asserting the right of the Gentiles to be 
admitted into it without conforming themselves to the 
Jewish law. This was the doctrine to which he con- 
sidered himself as a martyr. Thus in the epistle before us, 
i. 24. (I Paul) " who now rejoice in my sufferings for 
" you" — "for you" i. e. for those whom he had never 
seen ; for a few verses afterwards he adds, " I would that 



144 HORiE PAULINA. 

" ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for 
" them in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my 
" face in the flesh." His sufferings therefore for them 
was, in their general capacity of Gentile Christians, 
agreeably to what he explicitly declares in his Epistle to 
the Ephesians, iv. 1. " For this cause, I Paul, the 
" prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles." Again 
in the epistle now under consideration, iv. 3. Withal. 
" praying also for us, that God would open unto us a 
" door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for 
" which I am also in bonds." What that " mystery of 
" Christ " was, the Epistle to the Ephesians [iii. 4.]| 
distinctly informs us ; " whereby when ye read ye may 
" understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, 
" which, in other ages, was not made known unto the 
" sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles 
" and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be 
"fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his 
< ;< promise in Christ by the gospel" This, therefore, was 
the confession for which he declares himself to be in bonds. 
Now let us enquire how the occasion of St. Paul's im- 
prisonment is represented in the history. The apostle had 
not long returned to Jerusalem from his second visit into 
Greece, when an uproar was excited in that city by the 
clamour of certain Asiatic Jews [A. xxi. QTJ. J who, 
" having seen Paul in the temple, stirred up all the people, 
" and laid hands on him." The charge advanced against 
him was, that 6i he taught all men every where against the 
" people, and the law, and this place ; and farther brought 
" Greeks also into the temple, and polluted that holy 
" place." The former part of the charge seems to point 
at the doctrine, which he maintained, of the admission of 
the Gentiles, under the new dispensation, to an indis- 
criminate participation of God's favour with the Jews. 
But what follows makes the matter clear. When, by the 
interference of the chief captain, Paul had been rescued 
out of the hands of the populace, and was permitted to 
address the multitude who had followed him to the stairs 
of the castle, he delivered a brief account of his birth, of 
the early course of his life, of his miraculous conversion ; 



No. I. COL. i. 24. 145 

and is proceeding in his narrative, until he comes to de- 
scribe a vision which was presented to him, as he was 
praying in the temple ; and which bade him depart oat of 
Jerusalem, "for I will send thee far hence unto the 
Gentiles" Acts xxii. 21. " They gave him audience," 
says the historian, "unto this word ; and then lifted up 
" their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from 
ei the earth." Nothing can show more strongly than 
this account does, what was the offence which drew 
down upon St. Paul the vengeance of his countrymen. 
His mission to the Gentiles, and his open avowal of that 
mission, was the intolerable part of the apostle's crime. 
But although the real motive of the prosecution appears 
to have been the apostle's conduct towards the Gentiles ; 
yet, when his accusers came before a Roman magistrate, 
a charge was to be framed of a more legal form. The 
profanation of the temple was the article they chose to 
rely upon. This, therefore, became the immediate subject 
of Tertullus's oration before Felix, and of Paul's defence. 
But that he all along considered his ministry amongst the 
Gentiles as the actual source of the enmity that had been 
exercised against him, and in particular as the cause of 
the insurrection in which his person had been seized, is 
apparent from the conclusion of his discourse before 
Agrippa : I 6 1 have appeared unto thee," says he, de- 
scribing what passed upon his journey to Damascus, 
" for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, 
" both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those 
(( things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering 
" thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom 
" now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them 
" from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
" unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, 
" and inheritance among them which are sanctified by 
" faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I 
" was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision ; but 
** showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, 
" and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the 
" Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and 
i{ do works meet for repentance. For these causes the 

x 



146 RORJE PAULINA. 

" Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill 
" me." [A. xxvi. 16 . . %1.~] The seizing, therefore, of 
St. Paul's person, from which he was never discharged 
till his final liberation at Rome, and of which, therefore, 
his imprisonment at Rome was the continuation and 
effect, was not in consequence of any general persecution 
set on foot against Christianity ; nor did it befall him 
simply, as professing or teaching Christ's religion, which 
James and the elders at Jerusalem did as well as he (and 
yet for any thing that appears, remained at that time un- 
molested) ; but it was distinctly and specifically brought 
upon him by his activity in preaching to the Gentiles, and 
by his boldly placing them upon a level with the once- 
favoured and still self-flattered posterity of Abraham, 
How well St. Paul's letters, purporting to be written 
during this imprisonment, agree with this account of its 
cause and origin, we have already seen. 



No. II. 

Chap. iv. 10. " Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner sa- 
ic luteth you, and Marcus sister's son to Barnabas, touch- 
" ing whom ye received commandments ; if he come unto 
" you, receive him, and Jesus, which is called Justus, 
" who are of the circumcision." 

We find Aristarchus as a companion of our apostle in 
the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, and the twenty-ninth 
verse : " And the whole city of Ephesus was filled with 
" confusion ; and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, 
" men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they 
" rushed with one accord into the theatre/' And we find 
him upon his journey with St. Paul to Rome, in the 
twenty-seventh chapter, and the second verse : " And 
" when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, 
" they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one 
" named Julius, a centurion of Augustus's band ; and, 
" entering into a ship of Adramyttinm, we launched, 
" meaning to sail by the coast of Asia ; one Aristarchus 
" a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us" But 



No. II. COL. iv. 10. 147 

might not the author of the epistle have consulted the 
history ; and, observing that the historian had brought 
Aristarchus along with Paul to Rome, might he not for 
that reason, and without any other foundation, have put 
down his name amongst the salutations of an epistle, 
purporting to be written by the apostle from that place ? 
I allow so much of possibility to this objection, that I 
should not have proposed this in the number of coin- 
cidences clearly undesigned, had Aristarchus stood alone. 
The observation that strikes me in reading the passage is, 
that together with Aristarchus, whose journey to Rome 
we trace in the history, are joined Marcus and Justus, 
of whose coming to Rome the history says nothing. 
Aristarchus alone appears in the history, and Aristarchus 
alone would have appeared in the epistle; if the author had 
regulated himself by that conformity. Or if you take it 
the other way ; if you suppose the history to have been 
made out of the epistle, why the journey of Aristarchus to 
Rome should be recorded, and not that of Marcus and 
Justus, if the groundwork of the narrative was the ap- 
pearance of Aristarchus's name in the epistle, seems to be 
unaccountable. 

" Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas." Does not this 
hint account for Barnabas's adherence to Mark in the 
contest that arose with our apostle concerning him ? 
" And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us 
" go again and visit our brethren in every city where we 
" have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they 
" do : and Barnabas determined to take with them John,, 
" whose surname was Mark ; but Paul thought not 
" good to take him with them, who departed from them 
" from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the 
" work ; and the contention was so sharp between them, 
" that they departed asunder one from the other ; and 
" so Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus." 
[A. xv. 36 . . 39-] The history which records the 
dispute has not preserved the circumstance of Mark's 
relationship to Barnabas. It is no where noticed but in 
the text before us. As far, therefore, as it applies, the 
application is certainly undesigned. 

L 2 



148 HORiE PAULINA. 

" Sister 9 s son to Barnabas." This woman, the mother 
of Mark, and the sister of Barnabas, was, as might be 
expected, a person of some eminence amongst the Chris- 
tians of Jerusalem. It so happens that we hear of her in 
the history. " When Peter was delivered from prison, he 
" came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose 
6i surname was Mark, where many were gathered to- 
" gether praying." Acts, xii. 12. There is somewhat 
of coincidence in this ; somewhat bespeaking real trans- 
actions amongst real persons* 



No. III. 

The following coincidence, though it bear the appear- 
ance of great nicety and refinement, ought not, perhaps, 
to be deemed imaginary. In the salutations with which 
this, like most of St. Paul's epistles, concludes, we have 
" Aristarchus and Marcus, and Jesus, which is called 
" Justus, who are of the circumcision" (iv. 10, 11.) 
Then follow also " Epaphras, Luke the beloved phy- 
" sician, and Demas." Now as this description, " who 
" are of the circumcision," is added after the three first 
names, it is inferred, not without great appearance of pro- 
bability, that the rest, amongst whom is Luke, were not of 
the circumcision. Now can we discover any expression in 
the Acts of the Apostles, which ascertains whether the 
author of the book was a Jew or not ? If we can dis- 
cover that he was not a Jew, we fix a circumstance in his 
character, which coincides with what is here, indirectly 
indeed, but not very uncertainly, intimated concerning 
Luke : and we so far confirm both the testimony of the 
primitive church, that the Acts of the Apostles was 
written by St. Luke, and the general reality of the per- 
sons and circumstances brought together in this epistle. 
The text in the Acts, which has been construed to show 
that the writer was not a Jew, is the nineteenth verse of 
the first chapter, where, in describing the field which had 
been purchased with the reward of Judas's iniquity, it is 
said, " that it was known unto all the dwellers at Jeru- 



No. III. & IV. COL. iv. 10, 11. iv. 9. 149 

" salem ; insomuch as that field is called, in their proper 
" tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood." 
These words are by most commentators taken to be the 
words and observation of the historian, and not a part of 
St. Peter's speech, in the midst of which they are found. 
If this be admitted, then it is argued, that the expression, 
" in their proper tongue," would not have been used by 
a Jew, but is suitable to the pen of a Gentile, writing con- 
cerning Jews.* The reader will judge of the probability 
of this conclusion, and we urge the coincidence no farther 
than that probability extends. The coincidence, if it be 
one, is so remote from all possibility of design, that 
nothing need be added to satisfy the reader upon that part 
of the argument. 



No. TV. 

Chap. iv. 9. " With Onesimus, a faithful and be- 
" loved brother, who is one of you," 

Observe how it may be made out that Onesimus was 
a Colossian. Turn to the Epistle to Philemon, and you 
will find that Onesimus was the servant or slave of Phile- 
mon. The question, therefore, will be to what city Phile- 
mon belonged. In the epistle addressed to him this is not 
declared. It appears only that he was of the same place, 
whatever that place was, with an eminent Christian named 
Archippus. " Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and 
" Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved 
" and fellow-labourer ; and to our beloved Apphia, and 
" Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the church in thy 
" house." Now turn back to the Epistle to the Co- 
lossians, and you will find Archippus saluted by name 
amongst the Christians of that church. " Say to 
" Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast 
*' received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." (iv. 17.) The 
necessary result is, that Onesimus also was of the same 
city, agreeably to what is said of him, " he is one of you." 

* Vide Benson's Dissertation, vol. i. [ii.] p. 318. of his works, 
ed. 1756. 



L 3 



150 HORiE PAULXNiE. 

And this result is the effect, either of truth which produces 
consistency without the writer's thought or care, or of a 
contexture of forgeries confirming and falling in with one 
another by a species of fortuity of which I know no 
example. The supposition of design, I think, is ex- 
cluded, not only because the purpose to which the design 
must have been directed, viz. the verification of the passage 
in our epistle, in which it is said concerning Onesimus, 
66 he is one of you/' is a purpose which would be lost 
upon ninety-nine readers out of a hundred ; but because 
the means made use of are too circuitous to have been the 
subject of affectation and contrivance. Would a forger, 
who had this purpose in view, have left his readers to 
hunt it out, by going forward and backward from one 
epistle to another, in order to connect Onesimus with 
Philemon, Philemon with Archippus, and Archippus with 
Colosse ? all which he must do before he arrive at his 
discovery, that it was truly said of Onesimus, " he is one 
" of you. 



CHAP. IX. 

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 

No. L 

It is known to every reader of scripture, that the First 
Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks of the coming of 
Christ in terms which indicate an expectation of his 
speedy appearance : " For this we say unto you by the 
" word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain 
" unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them 
" which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend 
" from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
" angel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in 
- { Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and 



No. I. & II. 1 THESS. iv. 15—17. v. 4. v. 27. 151 

c * remain, shall be caught up together with them in the 
" clouds — But ye, brethren, are not in daikness, that 
" that day should overtake you as a thief." (iv. 15, 16, 
17. v. 4.) 

Whatever other construction these texts may bear, the 
idea they leave upon the mind of an ordinary reader, is 
that of the author of the epistle looking for the day of 
judgment to take place in his own time, or near to it. 
Now the use which I make of this circumstance, is to 
deduce from it a proof that the epistle itself was not the 
production of a subsequent age. Would an impostor have 
given this expectation to St. Paul, after experience had 
proved it to be erroneous ? or would he have put into the 
apostle's mouth, or, which is the same thing, into writings 
purporting to come from his hand, expressions, if not 
necessarily conveying, at least easily interpreted to convey, 
an opinion which was then known to be founded in mis- 
take ? I state this as an argument to show that the 
epistle was cotemporary with St. Paul, which is little 
less than to show that it actually proceeded from his pen. 
For I question whether any ancient forgeries were executed 
in the life-time of the person whose name they bear: nor 
was the primitive situation of the church likely to give 
birth to such an attempt. 



No. II. 

Our epistle concludes with a direction, that it should 
be publicly read in the church to which it was addressed : 
" I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto 
" all the holy brethren." The existence of this clause in 
the body of the epistle is an evidence of its authenticity ; 
because to produce a letter purporting to have been pub- 
licly read in the cnurch of Thessalonica, when no such 
letter in truth had been read or heard of in that church, 
would be to produce an imposture destructive of itself. 
At least, it sems unlikely that the author of an imposture 
would voluntarily, and even officiously, afford a handle to 
so plain an objection. Either the epistle was publicly 

l 4 



152 HORiE PAULINA. 

read in the church of Thessalonica during St. Paul's life- 
time, or it was not. If it was, no publication could be 
more authentic, no species of notoriety more unquestion- 
able, no method of preserving the integrity of the copy 
more secure. If it was not, the clause we produce would 
remain a standing condemnation of the forgery, and, one 
would suppose, an invincible impediment to its success. 

If we connect this article with the preceding, we shall 
perceive that they combine into one strong proof of the 
genuineness of the epistle. The preceding article carries 
up the date of the epistle to the time of St. Paul ; the 
present article fixes the publication of it to the church of 
Thessalonica. Either therefore the church of Thessa- 
lonica was imposed upon by a false epistle, which in St. 
Paul's life-time they received and read publicly, as his, 
carrying on a communication with him all the while, and 
the epistle referring to the continuance of that communi- 
cation ; or other Christian churches, in the same life-time 
of the apostle, received an epistle purporting to have been 
publicly read in the church of Thessalonica, which never- 
theless had not been heard of in that church ; or lastly, 
the conclusion remains, that the epistle hoav in our hands 
is genuine. 



No. III. 

Between our epistle and the history the accordancy in 
many points is circumstantial and complete. The history 
relates, that, after Paul and Silas had been beaten with 
many stripes at Philippi, shut up in the inner prison, and 
their feet made fast in the stocks, as soon as they were 
discharged from their confinement, they departed from 
thence, and, when they had passed through Amphipolis 
and Apollonia, came to Thessalonica, where Paul opened 
and alleged that Jesus was the Christ, Acts, xvi. 23 . . . 
xvii. 1 . . 3. The epistle written in the name of Paul and 
Sylvanus (Silas), and of Timotheus, who also appears to 
have been along with them at Philippi, (vide Philip. 
No. IV.) speaks to the church of Thessalonica thus : 



No. III. 1 THESS. ii. 2. 17, 18. iii. 4. 10, 11. 153 

" Even after that we had suffered before, and were shame- 
" fully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in 
" our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much 
" contention." (ii. 2.) 

The history relates, that after they had been some time 
at Thessalonica, " the Jews which believed not, set all the 
city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, where 
Paul and Silas were, and sought to bring them out to the 
people." Acts, xvii. 5. The epistle declares, " when we 
" were with you, we told you before that we should suffer 
" tribulation ; even as it came to pass and ye know" 
(iii. 4.) 

The history brings Paul and Silas and Timothy together 
at Corinth, soon after the preaching of the gospel at 
Thessalonica : " And when Silas and Timotheus were 
" come from Macedonia (to Corinth), Paul was pressed 
" in spirit." Acts, xviii. 5. The epistle is written in 
the name of these three persons, who consequently must 
have been together at the time, and speaks throughout of 
their ministry at Thessalonica as a recent transaction : 
" We, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, 
" in presence not in heart, endeavoured the more abun- 
" dantly to see your face with great desire." (ii. 17.) 

The harmony is indubitable ; but the points of history 
in which it consists, are so expressly set forth in the nar- 
rative, and so directly referred to in the epistle, that it 
becomes necessary for us to show, that the facts in one 
writing were not copied from the other. Now amidst 
some minuter discrepancies, which will be noticed below, 
there is one circumstance which mixes itself with all the 
allusions in the epistle, but does riot appear in the history 
any where ; and that is of a visit which St. Paul had in- 
tended to pay to the Thessalonians during the time of his 
residing at Corinth : " Wherefore we would have come 
" unto you (even I Paul) once and again, but Satan hin- 
" dered us." (ii. 18.) " Night and day praying ex- 
" ceedingly that we might see your face, and might per- 
" feet that which is lacking in your faith. Now God 
" himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, 
(i direct our way unto you." (iii. 10, 11.) Concern- 



154 UORM PAULINA. 

ing a design which was not executed, although the per- 
son himself, who was conscious of his own purpose, 
should make mention in his letters, nothing is more pro- 
bable than that his historian should be silent, if not igno- 
rant. The author of the epistle could not, however, have 
learnt this circumstance from the history, for it is not 
there to be met with ; nor, if the historian had drawn his 
materials from the epistle, is it likely that he would have 
passed over a circumstance, which is amongst the most 
obvious and prominent of the facts to be collected from 
that source of information. 



No. IV. 

Chap. iii. 1 — 7« " Wherefore, when we could no 
£S longer forbear, we thought it good to he left at Athens 
€< alone, and sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of 
" God, to establish you and to comfort you concerning 
" your faith : — but now when Timotheus came from you 
" unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and 
s< charity, we were comforted over you in all our affliction 
" and distress by your faith." 

The history relates, that when Paul came out of Mace- 
donia to Athens, Silas and Timothy staid behind at 
Beraea : " The brethren sent away Paul to go as it were 
" to the sea ; but Silas and Timotheus abode there still : 
" and they that conducted Paul brought him to Athens." 
Acts, xvii. 14, 15. The history farther relates, that after 
Paul had tarried some time at Athens, and had proceeded 
from thence to Corinth, whilst he was exercising his 
ministry in that city, Silas and Timothy came to him from 
Macedonia, Acts, xviii. 5. But to reconcile the history 
with the clause in the epistle which makes St. Paul say, 
" I thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and to send 
" Timothy unto you," it is necessary to suppose that 
Timothy had come up with St. Paul at Athens ; a cir- 
cumstance which the history does not mention. I remark, 
therefore, that although the history do not expressly no- 
tice this arrival, yet it contains intimations which render 



No. IV. 1 THESS, ill 1—7. 155 

it extremely probable that the fact took place. First, as 
soon as Paul had reached Athens, he sent a message back 
to Silas and Timothy " for to come to him with all speed." 
Acts, xvii. 15. Secondly, his stay at Athens was on 
purpose that they might join him there : " Now while 
" Paul ivaited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred 
" in him." Acts, xvii. 16. Thirdly, his departure from 
Athens does not appear to have been in any sort hastened, 
or abrupt. It is said, " after these things," viz. his dis- 
putation with the Jews, his conferences with the philoso- 
phers, his discourse at Areopagus, and the gaining of 
some converts, " he departed from Athens and came to 
" Corinth." [xviii. l.J It is not hinted that he quitted 
Athens before the time that he had intended to leave it ; 
it is not suggested that he was driven from thence, as he 
was from many cities, by tumults or persecutions, or be- 
cause his life was no longer safe. Observe then the 
particulars which the history does notice — that Paul had 
ordered Timothy to follow him without delay, that he 
waited at Athens on purpose that Timothy might come up 
with him, that he staid there as long as his own choice led 
him to continue. Laying these circumstances, which the 
history does disclose, together, it is highly probable that 
Timothy came to the apostle at Athens ; a fact which the 
epistle, we have seen, virtually asserts, when it makes 
Paul send Timothy back from Athens to Thessalonica. 
The sending back of Timothy into Macedonia accounts 
also for his not coming to Corinth till after Paul had been 
fixed in that city for some considerable time. Paul had 
found out Aquila and Priscilla, abode with them and 
wrought, being of the same craft ; and reasoned in the 
synagogue every sabbath-day, and persuaded the Jews 
and the Greeks. Acts, xviii. 1 — 5. All this passed at 
Corinth before Silas and Timotheus were come from 
Macedonia. Acts, xviii. 5. If this was the first time of 
their coming up with him after their separation at Ber?ea, 
there is nothing to account for a delay so contrary to what 
appears from the history itself to have been St. Paul's 
plan and expectation. This is a conformity of a peculiar 
species* The epistle discloses a fact which is not pre- 



156 HORiE PAULINA. 

served in the history ; hut which makes what is said in 
the history more significant, probable, and consistent. 
The history bears marks of an omission ; the epistle by 
reference furnishes a circumstance which supplies that 
omission. 



No. V. 

Chap. ii. 14. " For ye, brethren, became followers 
6< of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ 
" Jesus ; for ye also have suffered like things of your 
66 own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews." 

To a reader of the Acts of the Apostles, it might seem, 
at first sight, that the persecutions which the preachers 
and converts of Christianity underwent, were suffered at 
the hands of their old adversaries the Jews. But, if we 
attend carefully to the accounts there delivered, we shall 
observe, that, though the opposition made to the gospel 
usually originated from the enmity of the Jews, yet in 
almost all places the Jews went about to accomplish their 
purpose, by stirring up the Gentile inhabitants against 
their converted countrymen. Out of Judea they had not 
power to do much mischief in any other way. This was 
the case at Thessalonica in particular : " The Jews which 
" believed not, moved with envy, set all the city in an 
" uproar." Acts, xvii. 5. It was the same a short time 
afterwards at Bersea : " When the Jews of Thessalonica 
" had knowledge that the word of God was preached of 
" Paul at Bersea, they came thither also, and stirred up 
" the people." Acts, xvii. 13. And, before this, our 
apostle had met with a like species of persecution, in his 
progress through the Lesser Asia : "In every city the 
" unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made 
" their minds evil affected against the brethren." Acts, 
xiv. 2. The epistle therefore represents the case accu- 
rately as the history states it. It was the Jews always 
who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and 
their followers. He speaks truly therefore of them, when 
he says in this epistle, " they both killed the Lord Jesus 



No. V. & VI. 1 THESS. ii. 14. ii. 9, 10. 157 

" and their own prophets, and have persecuted as — for- 
" bidding us to speak unto the Gentiles. " (ii. 15, 16.) 
But out of Judea it was at the hands of the Gentiles, it 
was " of their own countrymen," that the injuries they 
underwent were immediately sustained : " Ye have suf- 
" fered like things of your own countrymen, even as they 
" have of the Jews." 



No. VI. 

The apparent discrepancies between our epistle and the 
history, though of magnitude sufficient to repel the im- 
putation of confederacy or transcription (in which view 
they form a part of our argument), are neither numerous, 
nor very difficult to reconcile. 

One of these may be observed in the ninth and tenth 
verses of the second chapter : " For ye remember, 
" brethren, our labour and travel ; for labouring night 
" and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any 
" of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye 
" are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and 
" unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that be- 
" lieve." A person who reads this passage is naturally 
led by it to suppose, that the writer had dwelt at Thessa- 
lonica for some considerable time ; yet of St. Paul's 
ministry in that city, the history gives no other account 
than the following : " that he came to Thessalonica, 
" where was a synagogue of the Jews ; that, as his 
" manner was, he went in unto them, and three sabbath- 
" days reasoned with them out of the scriptures ; that 
" some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and 
" Silas." The history then proceeds to tell us, that the 
Jews which believed not set the city in an uproar, and 
assaulted the house of Jason, where Paul and his com- 
panions lodged ; that the consequence of this outrage 
was, that " the brethren immediately sent away Paul 
" and Silas by night unto Bersea." Acts, xvii. 1 — 10. 
From the mention of his preaching three sabbath-days in 
the Jewish synagogue, and from the want of any farther 



158 HOR^E PAULINJE. 

specification of his ministry, it has usually been taken for 
granted that Paul did not continue at Thessalonica more 
than three weeks. This, however, is inferred without 
necessity. It appears to have been St. Paul's practice, 
in almost every place that he came to, upon his first arrival 
to repair to the synagogue. He thought himself bound 
to propose the gospel to the Jews first, agreeably to what 
he declared at Antioch in Pisidia ; "it was necessary 
" that the word of God should first have been spoken 
" to you." Acts, xiii. 46. If the Jews rejected his 
ministry, he quitted the synagogue, and betook himself 
to a Gentile audience. At Corinth, upon his first coming 
thither, he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath ; 
" but when the Jews opposed themselves, and blasphemed, 
" he departed thence," expressly telling them, " from 
" henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles ; and he re- 
" mained in that city a year and six months." Acts, 
xviii. 6 — 11. At Ephesus, in like manner, for the space 
of three months he went into the synagogue ; but, 
" when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake 
" evil of that way, he departed from them and separated 
" the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one 
" Tyrannus ; and this continued by the space of two 
" years." Acts, xix. 9? 10. Upon inspecting the his- 
tory, I see nothing in it which negatives the supposition, 
that St. Paul pursued the same plan at Thessalonica which 
he adopted in other places ; and that, though he resorted 
to the synagogue only three sabbath days, yet he remained 
in the city, and in the exercise of his ministry amongst 
the Gentile citizens, much longer ; and until the success 
of his preaching had provoked the Jews to excite the 
tumult and insurrection by which he was driven away. 

Another seeming discrepancy is found in the ninth 
verse of the first chapter of the epistle : " For they them- 
" selves show of us what manner of entering in we had 
" unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to 
" serve the living and true God, [and to wait for his 
" Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even 
" Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." J 
This text contains an assertion, that, by means of St. 



No. VI. 1 THESS. i. 9. 159 

Paul's ministry at Thessalonica, many idolatrous Gentiles 
had been brought over to Christianity. Yet the history, in 
describing- the effects of that ministry, only says, that 
" some of the Jews believed, and of the devout Greeks a 
great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." 
(xvii. 4.) The devout Greeks were those who already 
worshipped the one true God ; and therefore could not be 
said, by embracing Christianity, " to be turned to God 
from idols." 

This is the difficulty. The answer may be assisted by 
the following observations. The Alexandrian and Cam- 
bridge manuscripts read (for tcov o-s£o{a£vcov 'E/VArjvojv 

In which reading they are also confirmed by the Vulgate 
Latin. And this reading is in my opinion strongly sup- 
ported by the considerations, first, that ol o-z£6{jlsvoi 
alone, L e, without f/ EAArji/££, is used in this sense in this 
same chapter, Paul being come to Athens, oisXsysro 
iv rf, (ruvciycoyfi ro7g 'Jovtiouoig xai roig Gs£o[j.evoig : 
secondly, that (rs^'o^suoi and f/ E?vAr ; v»£ no where come 
together. The expression is redundant. The ol o-s£o[A£Voi 
must be c 'E?^r}vsg. Thirdly, that the xou is much more 
likely to have been left out incuria man us than to have 
been put in. 

Or, after all, if we be not allowed to change the present 
reading, which is undoubtedly retained by a great plu- 
rality of copies, may not the passage in the history be 
considered as describing only the effects of St. Paul's dis- 
courses during the three sabbath-days in which he preached 
in the synagogue ? and may it not be true, as we have 
remarked above, that his application to the Gentiles at 
large, and his success amongst them, was posterior to 
this? 



160 HORiE PAULINJE. 



CHAP. X. 

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 

No. I. 

It may seem odd to allege obscurity itself as an argu- 
ment, or to draw a proof in favour of a writing, from 
that which is usually considered as the principal defect in 
its composition. The present epistle, however, furnishes 
a passage, hitherto unexplained, and probably inexplicable 
by us, the existence of which, under the darkness and 
difficulties that attend it, can only be accounted for upon 
the supposition of the epistle being' genuine ; and upon 
that supposition is accounted for with great ease. The 
passage which I allude to is found in the second chapter : 
[vv. 3 . . 8.] " That day shall not come, except there 
" come a falling away first, and that man of sin be re- 
" vealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and ex- 
" alteth himself above all that is called God, or that is 
" worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple 
" of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember 
" ye not, that when I was yet with you I told 
" you these things ? And now ye know what with- 
" holdeth, that he might be revealed in his time ; for the 
" mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he that 
" now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way ; 
66 and then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord 
" shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
" destroy with the brightness of his coming." It were 
superfluous to prove, because it is in vain to deny, that 
this passage is involved in great obscurity, more especially 
the clauses distinguished by Italics. Now the observ- 
ation I have to offer is founded upon this, that the 
passage expressly refers to a conversation which the 
author had previously holden with the Thessalonians upon 



No. 1. & II. 2 THESS. ii. 3—8. iii. 8. 161 

the same subject : " Remember ye not, that when I was 
" yet with you / told you these things f And now ye 
" know what withholdeth." If such conversation actually 
passed ; if, whilst he was yet with them, " he told them 
" those things," then it follows that the epistle is au- 
thentic. And of the reality of this conversation it appears 
to be a proof, that what is said in the epistle might be un- 
derstood by those who had been present to such convers- 
ation, and yet be incapable of being explained by any 
other. No man writes unintelligibly on purpose. But it 
may easily happen, that a part of a letter which relates to 
a subject, upon which the parties had conversed together 
before, which refers to what had been before said, which 
is in truth a portion or continuation of a former discourse, 
may be utterly without meaning to a stranger, who should 
pick up the letter upon the road, and yet be perfectly 
clear to the person to whom it is directed, and with 
whom the previous communication had passed. And if, 
in a letter which thus accidentally fell into my hands, I 
found a passage expressly referring to a former con- 
versation, and difficult to be explained without knowing 
that conversation, I should consider this very difficulty as 
a proof that the conversation had actually passed, and 
consequently that the letter contained the real cor- 
respondence of real persons. 



No. II. 

Chap. iii. 8. " Neither did we eat any man's bread 
" for nought, but wrought with labour and travail night 
" and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of 
" you : not because we have not power, but to make our- 
" selves an ensample unto you to follow us." 

In a letter, purporting to have been written to another 
of the Macedonic churches, we find the following de- 
claration : 

" Now ye, Philippians, know also that in the be- 
" ginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, 

M 



162 HORiE PAULINA. 

" no church communicated iv ith me as concerning giving 
" and receiving, hut ye only" [iv. 15.] 

The conformity between these two passages is strong 
and plain. They confine the transaction to the same 
period. The Epistle to the Philippians refers to what 
passed " in the beginning of the gospel," that is to say, 
during the first preaching of the gospel on that side of 
the iEgean sea. The Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks 
of the apostle's conduct in that city upon " his first 
" entrance in unto them/' which the history informs us 
was in the course of his first visit to the peninsula of 
Greece. 

As St. Paul tells the Philippians, " that no church 
" communicated with him as concerning giving and re- 
" ceiving, but they only," he could not, consistently with 
the truth of this declaration, have received any thing from 
the neighbouring church of Thessalonica. What thus 
appears by general implication in an epistle to another 
church, when he writes to the Thessalonians themselves, 
is noticed expressly and particularly : " neither did we eat 
" any man's bread for nought, but wrought night and 
" day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you." 

The texts here cited farther also exhibit a mark of 
conformity with what St. Paul is made to say of himself 
in the Acts of the Apostles. The apostle not only reminds 
the Thessalonians that he had not been chargeable to any 
of them, but he states likewise the motive which dictated 
this reserve : " not because we have not power, but to 
" make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us." 
(iii. 9^) This conduct, and what is much more precise, 
the end which he had in view by it, was the very same as 
that which the history attributes to St. Paul in a discourse, 
which it represents him to have addressed to the elders of 
the church of Ephesus : " Yea, ye yourselves also know 
" that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, 
" and to them that were with me. I have showed you 
" all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support 
" the weak." Acts, xx. 34. The sentiment in the 
epistle and in the speech is in both parts of it so much 
alike, and yet the words which convey it show so little of 



No. III. 2 THESS. ii. 1, 2. 163 

imitation or even of resemblance, that the agreement can- 
not well be explained without supposing the speech and 
the letter to have really proceeded from the same person. 



No. III. 

Our reader remembers the passage in the First Epistle 
to the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul spoke of the 
coming of Christ : " This we say unto you by the word 
" of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto 
'* the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which 
" are asleep ; for the Lord himself shall descend from 
" heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we 
" which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together 
" with them in the clouds, and so shall we be ever with 
"the Lord. — But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, 
" that that day should overtake you as a thief." 
1 Thess. iv. 15 — 17> and v. 4. It should seem that the 
Thessalonians, or some however amongst them, had 
from this passage conceived an opinion (and that not 
very unnaturally) that the coming of Christ was to take 
place instantly, on svso-tyjxsv * ; and that this persuasion 
had produced, as it well might, much agitation in the 
church. The apostle therefore now writes, amongst other 
purposes, to quiet this alarm, and to rectify the miscon- 
struction that had been put upon his words : " Now 
" we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord 
" Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 
" that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, 
" neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter y as from 
" us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." [2 Th. ii. 1, 2.] 
If the allusion which we contend for be admitted, namely, 
if it be admitted, that the passage in the Second Epistle 
relates to the passage in the First, it amounts to a con- 
siderable proof of the genuineness of both epistles. I 
have no conception, because I know no example, of such 

* "Ort ivecrr'/jKsv nempe hoc anno, says Grotius, eAa-r^Ksv hie dici- 
tur de re praesenti, ut Rom. viii. 38. 1 Cor. iii. 22. Gal. i. 4. 
Heb. ix. 9. 

M °2 



164 HORiE FAULINiE. 

a device in a forgery, as first to frame an ambiguous 
passage in a letter, then to represent the persons to whom 
the letter is addressed as mistaking the meaning of the 
passage, and lastly to write a second letter in order to 
correct this mistake. 

I have said that this argument arises out of the text, 
if the allusion be admitted ; for I am not ignorant that 
many expositors understand the passage in the Second 
Epistle, as referring to some forged letters, which had 
been produced in St. Paul's name, and in which the 
apostle had been made to say that the coming of Christ 
was then at hand. In defence, however, of the ex- 
planation which we propose, the reader is desired to ob- 
serve, 

1. The strong fact, that there exists a passage in 
the First Epistle, to which that in the Second is capable of 
being referred, i. e. which accounts for the error the 
writer is solicitous to remove. Had no other epistle than 
the Second been extant, and had it under these circum- 
stances come to be considered, whether the text before us 
related to a forged epistle or to some misconstruction of a 
true one, many conjectures and many probabilities might 
have been admitted in the enquiry, which can have little 
weight, when an epistle is produced, containing the very 
sort of passage we were seeking, that is, a passage liable 
to the misinterpretation which the apostle protests against. 

2. That the clause which introduces the passage in the 
Second Epistle bears a particular affinity to what is found 
in the passage cited from the First Epistle. The clause is 
this : " We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our 
" Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto 
" him" Now in the First Epistle the description of the 
coming of Christ is accompanied with the mention of this 
very circumstance of his saints " being collected round 
" him." " The Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
" with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
" the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise 
" first ; then we which are alive and remain, shall be 
" caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
« the Lord in the air." 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. This I 



No. III. 2 THESS. ii. 1, 2. 165 

suppose to be the " gathering together unto him " in- 
tended in the Second Epistle ; and that the author when he 
used these words, retained in his thoughts what he had 
written on the subject before. 

3. The Second Epistle is written in the joint name of 
Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, and it cautions the Thes- 
salonians against being misled " by letter as from us" 
(ajc oY tJjOuov). Do not these words "oY tJ/juov" appropriate 
the reference to some writing which bore the name of 
these three teachers ? Now this circumstance, which is a 
very close one, belongs to the epistle at present in our 
hands ; for the epistle which we call the First Epistle to 
the Thessalonians contains these names in its superscrip- 
tion. 

4. The words in the original, as far as they are mate- 
rial to be stated, are these : [_°Z Th. ii. 2.]] " s\g to [xr) 
Tayktog o~a7^suSr]Vcci ufxag 6l7to tou voog, (ay)$s ^-pos7<r$a/, 
fjLrjTe $io\ irvsu^oLTog, fj.7]TS &a \oyou, fxyTs oY i7rio~ToXr}g, 
cog oY tJjUxov, wg oti eue(TTrjxsu yrf[ASpGt tou Xqio-tou. 
Under the weight of the preceding observations may not 
the words (xyjts hia "klyou, {jltjTs oY J7t/o-toA7J£, cog oY r]fj.tov 
be construed to signify quasi nos quid tale aut dixeri- 
mus aut scripserimus *, intimating that their words had 
been mistaken, and that they had in truth said or written 
no such thing. 

* Should a contrary interpretation be preferred, I do not think 
that it implies the conclusion that a false epistle had then been 
published in the apostle's name. It will completely satisfy the al- 
lusion in the text to allow, that some one or other at Thessalonica 
had pretended to have been told by St. Paul and his companions, 
or to have seen a letter from them in which they had said, that 
the day of Christ was at hand. In like manner, as Acts, xv. \, 24-, 
it is recorded that some had pretended to have received instruc- 
tions from the church of Jerusalem, which had not been received: 
"to whom they gave no such commandment." And thus Dr. 
Benson interpreted the passage fxr,le Spoe7<r6ai, pfrs hia, icvevixccroi;, 
^re $u& "hoyov, pyre &*' ini<TToXrj<;, aq fa' n^Sv, " nor be dismayed by any 
" revelation, or discourse, or epistle, which any one shall pretend 
" to have heard or received from us." 



M 8 



166 UORM PAULINiE. 



CHAP. XI. 

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 

From the third verse of the first chapter, " As I besought 
" thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Mace- 
(i donia," it is evident that this epistle was written soon after 
St. Paul [on some occasion] had gone to Macedonia from 
Ephesus. Dr. Benson fixes its date to the time of St. Paul's 
journey, recorded in the beginning of the twentieth chapter 
of the Acts : " And after the uproar (excited by Demetrius 
" at Ephesus) was ceased, Paul called unto him the dis- 
" ciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into 
" Macedonia." And in this opinion Dr. Benson is fol- 
lowed by Michaelis, as he was preceded by the greater 
part of the commentators who have considered the ques- 
tion. There is, however, one objection to the hypothesis 
which these learned men appear to me to have overlooked ; 
and it is no other than this, that the superscription of the 
Second Epistle to the Corinthians seems to prove, that at 
the time St. Paul is supposed by them to have written 
this epistle to Timothy, Timothy in truth was with 
St. Paul in Macedonia. Paul, as it is related in the Acts, 
left Ephesus " for to go into Macedonia." When he had 
got into Macedonia, he wrote his Second Epistle to the Co- 
rinthians. Concerning this point there exists little variety 
of opinion. It is plainly indicated by the contents of the 
epistle. It is also strongly implied that the epistle was 
written soon after the apostle's arrival in Macedonia ; for 
he begins his letter by a train of reflection, referring to 
his persecutions in Asia as to recent transactions, as to 
dangers from which he had lately been delivered. But in 
the salutation with which the epistle opens Timothy is 
joined with St, Paul, and consequently could not at that 
time be " left behind at Ephesus." And as to the only 
solution of the difficulty which can be thought of, viz. that 



1 TIM. i. 3. iii. 14, 15. iv. 13. 167 

Timothy, though he was left behind at Ephesus upon 
St. Paul's departure from Asia, yet might follow him so 
soon after, as to come up with the apostle in Macedonia 
before he wrote his epistle to the Corinthians ; that suppo- 
sition is inconsistent with the terms and tenor of the 
epistle throughout. For the writer speaks uniformly of 
his intention to return to Timothy at Ephesus, and not of 
his expecting Timothy to come to him in Macedonia : 
" These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto 
" thee shortly ; but if I tarry long, that thou mayestknow 
t6 how thou oughtest to behave thyself." (iii. 14, 15.) 
" Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, 
" to doctrine." (iv. 13.) 

Since, therefore, the leaving of Timothy behind at 
Ephesus, when Paul went into Macedonia, suits not with 
any journey into Macedonia recorded in the Acts, I con- 
cur with Bishop Pearson * in placing the date of this 
epistle, and the journey referred to in it, at a period sub- 
sequent to St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, and 
consequently subsequent to the aera, up to which the Acts 
of the Apostles brings his history. 

The only difficulty which attends our opinion is, that 
St. Paul must, according to us, have come to Ephesus 
after his liberation at Rome, contrary as it should seem to 
what he foretold to the Ephesian elders, " that they should 
" see his face no more." And it is to save the infalli- 
bility of this prediction, and for no other reason of weight, 
that an earlier date is assigned to this epistle. The pre- 
diction itself, however, when considered in connection 
with the circumstances under which it was delivered, does 
not seem to demand so much anxiety. The words in 
question are found in the twenty-fifth verse of the twen- 
tieth chapter of the Acts : " And now behold, I know 
" that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the 
" kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." In 
the twenty-second and twenty-third verses of the same 
chapter, i. e, two verses before, the apostle makes this 
declaration : — " And now behold, I go bound in the spirit 

* \_A?inal. Paulin, p. 22 ; and more fully, De Successione, &c. 
p. 75.] 

M 4 



168 UORJE PAULINiE. 

" unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall 
" me there ; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every 
" city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me." This 
" witnessing of the Holy Ghost" was undoubtedly pro- 
phetic and supernatural. But it went no farther than to 
foretel that bonds and afflictions awaited him. And I can 
very^well conceive, that this might be all which was com- 
municated to the apostle by extraordinary revelation, and 
that the rest was the conclusion of his own mind, the 
desponding inference which he drew from strong and 
repeated intimations of approaching danger. And the 
expression i( I know," which St. Paul here uses, does not 
perhaps, when applied to future events affecting himself, 
convey an assertion so positive and absolute as we may at 
first sight apprehend. In the first chapter of the Epistle 
to the Philippians and the twenty-fifth verse, " I know," 
says he, ' 6 that I shall abide and continue with you all for 
" your furtherance and joy of faith." Notwithstanding 
this strong declaration, in the second chapter and twenty- 
third verse of this same epistle, and speaking also of the 
very same event, he is content to use a language of some 
doubt and uncertainty : " Him therefore I hope to send 
" presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go ivith 
" me ; but I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall 
(i come shortly." And a few verses preceding these, he 
not only seems to doubt of his safety, but almost to 
despair ; to contemplate the possibility at least of his con- 
demnation and martyrdom : " Yea, and if I be offered 
" upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and 
" rejoice with you all." 

[The very clear and able argument of Bishop Pearson, to show 
that the leaving of Timothy behind at Ephesus, 1 Tim. i. 3, when 
St. Paul went into Macedonia, consists not with any one of the 
three journeys recorded in the Acts, (xvi. 9, 10; xx. 1 ; xx. 3.) 
may be read, Annal. Paulin. p. 22 ; and more fully developed, 
pp. 75, 76, De Successione primorum Romce Episcoporum, in the 
same volume of his Opera Posthuma Chronologica. Against the 
interpretation of Acts, xx. 25, as if it must be taken for infallible 
truth and an inspired prediction, Ludovicus Cappellus argues with 
great clearness and success in Histor. Apostolic. Illustrata. pp. 
34, 35.] 



No. I. 8c II. 1 TIM. v. 9. 169 



No. I. 

But can we show that St. Paul visited Ephesus after 
his liberation at Rome ? or rather, can we collect any hints 
from his other letters which make it probable that he did ? 
If we can, then we have a coincidence. If we cannot, 
we have only an unauthorised supposition, to which the 
exigency of the case compels us to resort. Now, for 
this purpose, let us examine the Epistle to the Philip- 
pians and the Epistle to Philemon. These two epistles 
purport to be written whilst St. Paul was yet a pri- 
soner at Rome. To the Philippians [ii. 24/j he writes 
as follows : — " I trust in the Lord that I also my- 
" self shall come shortly." To Philemon, who was a 
Colossian, he gives [v. 22.] this direction : " But withal 
" prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through 
" your prayers I shall be given unto you." An inspec- 
tion of the map will show us that Colosse* was a city of 
the Lesser Asia, lyings eastward, and at no great distance 
from Ephesus. Philippi was on the other, L e, the 
western side of the JEgean sea. If the apostle executed 
his purpose ; if, in pursuance of the intention expressed 
in his letter to Philemon, he came to Colosse soon after 
he was set at liberty at Rome, it is very improbable that 
he would omit to visit Ephesus, which lay so near to it, 
and where he had spent three years of his ministry. As 
he was also under a promise to the church of Philippi to 
see them " shortly;" if he passed from Colosse to Phi- 
lippi, or from Philippi to Colosse, he could hardly avoid 
taking Ephesus in his way. 



No II. 



Chap. v. 9. " Let not a widow be taken into the 
" number under threescore years old." 

This accords with the account delivered in the sixth 
chapter [v. 1.] of the Acts : " And in those days, when 
" the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose 



170 HOR^E PAULINAS. 

" a murmuring- of the Grecians against the Hebrews, 
" because their widows were neglected in the daily 
" ministration" It appears that, from the first form- 
ation of the Christian church, provision was made out of 
the public fun els of the society for the indigent widows 
who belonged to it. The history, we have seen, distinctly 
records the existence of such an institution at Jerusalem, 
a few years after our Lord's ascension ; and is led to the 
mention of it very incidentally, viz. by a dispute of which 
it was the occasion, and which produced important con- 
sequences to the Christian community. The epistle, with- 
out being suspected of borrowing from the history, refers, 
briefly indeed, but decisively, to a similar establishment, 
subsisting some years afterwards at Ephesus. This agree- 
ment indicates that both writings were founded upon real 
circumstances. 

But, in this article, the material thing to be noticed is 
the mode of expression : " Let not a widow be taken into 
" the number." No previous account or explanation is 
given, to which these words, " into the number," can 
refer j but the direction comes concisely and unpreparedly : 
" Let not a widow be taken into the number." Now 
this is the way in which a man writes who is conscious 
that he is writing to persons already acquainted with the 
subject of his letter ; and who, he knows, will readily 
apprehend and apply what he says, by virtue of their 
being so acquainted : but it is not the way in which a 
man writes upon any other occasion \ and least of all, in 
which a man would draw up a feigned letter, or introduce 
a suppositious fact.* 

* It is not altogether unconnected with our general purpose to 
remark, in the passage before us, the selection and reserve which 
St. Paul recommends to the governors of the church of Ephesus, 
in the bestowing relief upon the poor, because it refutes a calumny 
which has been insinuated, that the liberality of the first Christians 
was an artifice to catch converts ; or one of the temptations, how- 
ever, by which the idle and the mendicant were drawn into this 
society : " Let not a widow be taken into the number under 
" threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well re- 
" ported of for good works ; if she have brought up children, 
" if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, 
" if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed 



No. III. 1 TIM. iii. 2, 3. 171 



No. III. 



Chap. iii. S, 3. " A bishop must be blameless, the 
u husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, 
" given to hospitality, apt to teach ; not given to wine, 
" no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a 
" brawler, not covetous ; one that ruleth well his own 
" house." 

" No striker :" That is the article which I single out 
from the collection as evincing the antiquity at least, if not 
the genuineness, of the epistle, because it is an article 
which no man would have made the subject of caution 
who lived in an advanced aera of the church. It agreed 
with the infancy of the society, and with no other state of 
it. After the government of the church had acquired the 
dignified form which it soon and naturally assumed, this 



" every good work: but the younger widows refuse." (vv. 9, 10, 
11.) And, in another place, [v. 16.] " If any man or woman that 
" believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the 
" church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows in- 
" deed." And to the same effect, or rather more to our present 
purpose, the apostle writes in his Second Epistle to the Thessalo- 
nians : [iii. 10.. 12.] " Even when we were with you, this we 
Ci commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he 
" eat," L e. at the public expense ; " for we hear that there are 
" some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but 
" are busy-bodies : now them that are such, we command and ex- 
" hort, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, 
Ci and eat their own bread." Could a designing or dissolute poor 
take advantage of bounty regulated with so much caution ? or 
could the mind which dictated these sober and prudent directions 
be influenced in his recommendations of public charity by any 
other than the properest motives of beneficence ? 

[The calumny here noticed may probably be that of Is. Orobio, 
referred to by Dr. Benson in a valuable note_, vol. i. p. 102, and to 
be found in Limborch's Arnica Collatio cum erudito Judceo. Goudae, 
1687, p. 134, and the answer to it in p. 162. 

Whoever has access to that volume, will do well to read what is 
subjoined to its principal contents, Urielis Acosta Exemplar Hu- 
mancB Vitce, pp. 350, 351, for the account there given of the in- 
dignities which Acosta suffered in the Jewish synagogue at Am- 
sterdam, and especially of the forty stripes save one literally in- 
flicted on him.] 



172 HORJE PAULINiE. 

injunction could have no place. Would a person who 
lived under a hierarchy, such as the Christian hierarchy 
became when it had settled into a regular establishment, 
have thought it necessary to prescribe concerning the 
qualification of a bishop, " that he should be no striker?" 
And this injunction would be equally aliene from the im- 
agination of the writer, whether he wrote in his own 
character, or personated that of an apostle. 



No. IV. 

Chap. v. 23. " Drink no longer water, but use a 
" little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often in- 
" firmities." 

Imagine an impostor sitting down to forge an epistle 
in the name of St. Paul. Is it credible that it should 
come into his head to give such a direction as this ; so 
remote from every thing of doctrine or discipline, every 
thing of public concern to the religion or the church, or to 
any sect, order, or party in it, and from every purpose 
with which such an epistle could be written ? It seems 
to me that nothing but reality, that is, the real valetudi- 
nary situation of a real person, could have suggested a 
thought of so domestic a nature. 

But if the peculiarity of the advice be observable, the 
place in which it stands is more so. The context is this : 
" Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of 
" other men's sins ; keep thyself pure ; — drink no longer 
" water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, 
" and thine often infirmities : — some men's sins are 
" open before hand, going before to judgment ; and 
" some men they follow after." The direction to Timothy 
about his diet stands between two sentences, as wide 
from the subject as possible. The train of thought 
seems to be broken to let it in. Now when does this 
happen ? It happens when a man writes as he remem- 
bers ; when he puts down an article that occurs the mo- 
ment it occurs, lest he should afterwards forget it. Of 
this the passage before us bears strongly the appearance. 



No. IV. & V. 1 TIM. v. 23. i. 15, 16. 173 

In actual letters, in the negligence of a real correspond- 
ence, examples of this kind frequently take place ; seldom, 
I believe, in any other production. For the moment a 
man regards what he writes as a composition, which the 
author of a forgery would, of all others, be the first to do, 
notions of order, in the arrangement and succession of his 
thoughts, present themselves to his judgment, and guide 
his pen. 

[Perhaps the secret link of associated thought may be discovered 
here. St. Paul, chap. iii. 3. 8, had prescribed one necessary qua- 
lification of a bishop, as of a deacon, that he be " not given to much 
" wine." When, therefore, at chap. v. 22, in reference to the 
same solemn task of ordaining, he had said to Timothy, " Lay 
" hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's 
" sins ; keep thyself pure ;" the idea of excluding persons " given 
" to wine/' evidently strong in his mind, (Titus, i. 7.) and just then 
tacitly recurring, suggested also the peculiarity of Timothy's own 
delicate health, for which a moderate use of wine was rather to be 
recommended than forbidden. 

In performing that high office, ie keep thyself pure ; " and yet, 
with all strictness towards others, in thine own case be not so se- 
vere. " Drink no longer water ; but use a little wine for thy 
" stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities."] 



No. V. 

Chap. i. 15, 16. " This is a faithful saying, and 
" worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
" the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How- 
" beit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first 
" Jesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering, for a 
" pattern to them which should hereafter believe in him 
" to life everlasting." 

What was the mercy which St. Paul here commemo- 
rates, and what was the crime of which he accuses him- 
self, is apparent from the verses immediately preceding : 
" I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, 
" for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the 
" ministry, iclio teas before a blasphemer, and a perse- 
" cutor and injurious ; but I obtained mercy, because I 
i( did it ignorantlyin unbelief." (i. 12, 13.) The whole 



174 HOR^ PAULINA. 

quotation plainly refers to St. Paul's original enmity to 
the Christian name, the interposition of providence in his 
conversion, and his subsequent designation to the ministry 
of the gospel ; and by this reference affirms indeed the 
substance of the apostle's history delivered in the Acts. 
But what in the passage strikes my mind most powerfully, 
is the observation that is raised out of the fact : " For 
" this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ 
" might shew forth all long suffering, for a pattern to 
" them which should hereafter believe on him to life ever- 
u lasting." It is a just and solemn reflection, springing 
from the circumstances of the author's conversion, or 
rather from the impression which that great event had left 
upon his memory. It will be said, perhaps, that an im- 
postor, acquainted with St. Paul's history, may have put 
such a sentiment into his mouth ; or, what is the same 
thing, into a letter drawn up in his name. But where, 
we may ask, is such an impostor to be found ? The piety, 
the truth, the benevolence of the thought ought to protect 
it from this imputation. For, though we should allow 
that one of the great masters of the ancient tragedy could 
have given to his scene a sentiment as virtuous and as 
elevated as this is, and, at the same time, as appropriate, 
and as well suited to the particular situation of the person 
who delivers it ; yet whoever is conversant in these en- 
quiries will acknowledge, that to do this in a fictitious 
production is beyond the reach of the understandings 
which have been employed upon any fabrications that have 
come down to us under Christian names. 



No. I. 2 TIM. i. 8. 16, 17. 175 



CHAP. XII. 

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 

No. I. 

It was the uniform tradition of the primitive church, that 
St. Paul visited Rome twice, and twice there suffered im- 
prisonment ; and that he was put to death at Rome at the 
conclusion of his second imprisonment. This opinion con- 
cerning St. Paul's two journeys to Rome, is confirmed by 
a great variety of hints and allusions in the epistle before 
us, compared with what fell from the apostle's pen in 
other letters purporting to have been written from Rome. 
That our present epistle was written whilst St. Paul was 
a prisoner, is distinctly intimated by the eighth verse of 
the first chapter : " Be not thou therefore ashamed of the 
" testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner : " and 
whilst he was a prisoner at Rome, by the sixteenth and 
seventeenth verses of the same chapter : " The Lord give 
" mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus ; for he oft re- 
" freshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain : but 
" when he was in Rome he sought me out very dili- 
" gently, and found me." Since it appears from the 
former quotation that St. Paul wrote this epistle in con- 
finement, it will hardly admit of doubt that the word 
chain, in the latter quotation, refers to that confinement ; 
the chain by which he was then bound, the custody in 
which he was then kept. And if the word chain designate 
the author's confinement at the time of writing the epistle, 
the next words determine it to have been written from 
Rome ; " He was not ashamed of my chain ; but when 
" he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently." 
Now that it was not written during the apostle's first im- 
prisonment at Rome, or during the same imprisonment 
in which the epistles to the Ephesians, the Colossians, 



176 UORM PAULINA. 

the Philippians, and Philemon, were written, may be 
gathered, with considerable evidence, from a comparison 
of these several epistles with the present. 

i. In the former epistles the author confidently looked 
forward to his liberation from confinement, and his speedy 
departure from Rome. He tells the Philippians* (ii. 24.) 
" I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." 
Philemon he bids to prepare for him a lodging ; " for I 
" trust," says he, " that through your prayers I shall be 
" given unto you." (v. 22.) In the epistle before us he 
holds a language extremely different : "I am now ready 
" to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 
cc I have fought a good fight ; I have finished my course ; 
" I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for 
"me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
" righteous judge, shall give me at that day." (iv. 6 — 8.) 

ii. When the former epistles were written from Rome, 
Timothy was with St. Paul ; and is joined with him in 
writing to the Colossians, the Philippians, and to Phile- 
mon. The present epistle implies that he was absent. 

iii. In the former epistles Demas was with St. Paul 
at Rome : " Luke the beloved physician, and Demas, 
" greet you." In the epistle now before us : " Demas 
" hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and 
" is departed unto Thessalonica." 

iv. In the former epistles, Mark was with St. Paul, 
and joins in saluting the Colossians. In the present 
epistle, Timothy is ordered to " bring him with him, for 
" he is profitable to me for the ministry." (iv. 11.) 

The case of Timothy and of Mark might be very well 
accounted for, by supposing the present epistle to have 
been written before the others ; so that Timothy, who is 
here exhorted " to come shortly unto him," (iv. 9-) might 
have arrived, and that Mark, " whom he was to bring 
" with him," (iv. 11.) might have also reached Rome in 
sufficient time to have been with St. Paul when the four 
epistles were written : but then such a supposition is in- 
consistent with what is said of Demas, by which the pos- 
teriority of this to the other epistles is strongly indicated ; 
for in the other epistles Demas was with St. Paul, in the 



. No. I. 2 TIM. iv. 20. 177 

present he hath " forsaken him, and is gone to Thessa- 
" lonica." The opposition also of sentiment, with respect 
to the event of the persecution, is hardly reconcileable to 
the same imprisonment. 

The two following considerations, which were first sug- 
gested upon this question by Ludovicus Cappellus, are still 
more conclusive. 

1. In the twentieth verse of the fourth chapter, St. Paul 
informs Timothy " that Erastus abode at Corinth," "Epac - - 
Tog £[jlsiv£V sv Kop/V#a>. The form of expression implies, 
that Erastus had staid behind at Corinth, when St. Paul 
left it. But this could not be meant of any journey from 
Corinth, which St. Paul took prior to his first imprison- 
ment at Rome ; for when Paul departed from Corinth, 
as related in the twentieth chapter of the Acts, Timothy 
was with him : and this was the last time the apostle left 
Corinth before his coming to Rome ; because he left it 
to proceed on his way to Jerusalem, soon after his arrival 
at which place he was taken into custody, and continued 
in that custody till he was carried to Caesar's tribunal. 
There could be no need therefore to inform Timothy that 
" Erastus staid behind at Corinth " upon this occasion, 
because, if the fact was so, it must have been known to 
Timothy, who was present, as well as to St. Paul. [Ap- 
pend, ad Hist. Apostol. pp. 30, 31.] 

2. In the same verse our epistle also states the follow- 
ing article : " Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." 
When St. Paul passed through Miletum on his way to 
Jerusalem, as related Acts, xx. [4. 15.], Trophimus was 
not left behind, but accompanied him to that city. He 
was indeed the occasion of the uproar at Jerusalem, in 
consequence of which St. Paul was apprehended ; for " they 
" had seen," says the historian, " before with him in the 
" city, Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that 
" Paul had brought into the temple." [xxi. 29.] This 
was evidently the last time of Paul's being at Miletus be- 
fore his first imprisonment ; for, as hath been said, after 
his apprehension at Jerusalem, he remained in custody till 
he was sent to Rome. 

In these two articles we have a journey referred to, 



378 B.ORM PAULINiE. 

which must have taken place subsequent to the conclusion 
of St. Luke's history, and of course after St. Paul's libe- 
ration from his first imprisonment. The epistle therefore, 
which contains this reference, since it appears from other 
parts of it to have been written whilst St. Paul was a pri- 
soner at Rome, proves that he had returned to that city 
again, and undergone there a second imprisonment. 

I do not produce these particulars for the sake of the 
support which they lend to the testimony of the fathers 
concerning St. Paul's second imprisonment, but to remark 
their consistency and agreement with one another. They 
are all resolvable into one supposition : and although the 
supposition itself be in some sort only negative, viz. that 
the epistle was not written during St. Paul's first residence 
at Rome, but in some future imprisonment in that city, 
yet is the consistency not less worthy of observation ; for 
the epistle touches upon names and circumstances con- 
nected with the date and with the history of the first 
imprisonment, and mentioned in letters written during 
that imprisonment, and so touches upon them, as to leave 
what is said of one consistent with what is said of others, 
and consistent also with what is said of them in different 
epistles. Had one of these circumstances been so de- 
scribed, as to have fixed the date of the epistle to the first 
imprisonment, it would have involved the rest in contra- 
diction. And when the number and particularity of the 
articles which have been brought together under this head 
are considered ; and when it is considered also, that the 
comparisons we have formed amongst them, were in all 
probability neither provided for, nor thought of, by the 
writer of the epistle, it will be deemed something very like 
the effect of truth, that no invincible repugnancy is per- 
ceived between them. 



No. II. & III. 2 TIM. i. 5. iii. 15. 179 



No. II. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, in the sixteenth chapter 
and at the first verse, we are told that Paul " came to 
" Derbe and Lystra ; and behold a certain disciple was 
" there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman 
" which was a Jewess, and believed ; but his father was 
" a Greek." In the epistle before us, in the first chapter 
and at the fifth verse, St. Paul writes to Timothy thus : 
" Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, 
" that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remem- 
" brance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt 
" first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; 
" and I am persuaded that in thee also." Here we have 
a fair unforced example of coincidence. In the history 
Timothy was the " son of a Jewess that believed :" in 
the epistle St. Paul applauds " the faith which dwelt in 
i( his mother Eunice." In the history it is said of the 
mother, " that she was a Jewess, and believed ;" of the 
father, " that he was a Greek." Now when it is said of 
the mother alone, " that she believed," the father being 
nevertheless mentioned in the same sentence, we are led 
to suppose of the father, that he did not believe, i. e. either 
that he was dead, or that he remained unconverted. 
Agreeably hereunto, whilst praise is bestowed in the epistle 
upon one parent, and upon her sincerity in the faith, no 
notice is taken of the other. The mention of the grand- 
mother is the addition of a circumstance not found in the 
history : but it is a circumstance which, as well as the 
names of the parties, might naturally be expected to be 
known to the apostle, though overlooked by his historian. 



No. III. 

Chap. iii. 15. " And that from a child thou hast 
" known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee 
" wise unto salvation." 

This verse discloses a circumstance which agrees ex- 

n 2 



180 HOR^ PAULINA. 

actly with what is intimated in the quotation from the 
Acts, adduced in the last number. In that quotation it is 
recorded of Timothy's mother, " that she was a Jewess." 
This description is virtually, though, I am satisfied, un- 
designedly, recognised in the epistle, when Timothy is 
reminded in it, " that from a child he had known the 
" holy scriptures." " The holy scriptures" undoubtedly 
meant the scriptures of the Old Testament. The ex- 
pression bears that sense in every place in which it occurs. 
Those of the New had not yet acquired the name, not to 
mention, that in Timothy's childhood, probably none of 
them existed. In what manner, then, could Timothy 
have known " from a child" the Jewish scriptures, had 
he not been born, on one side or on both, of Jewish pa- 
rentage ? Perhaps he was not less likely to be carefully 
instructed in them, for that his mother alone professed 
that religion. 



No. IV. 

Chap. ii. 22. " Flee also youthful lusts ; but follow 
" righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call 
" on the Lord out of a pure heart." 

" Flee also youthful lusts" The suitableness of this 
precept to the age of the person to whom it is addressed, 
is gathered from 1 Tim. iv. 12 : " Let no man despise 
" thy youth" Nor do I deem the less of this coincidence, 
because the propriety resides in a single epithet ; or be- 
cause this one precept is joined with, and followed by, a 
train of others, not more applicable to Timothy than to 
any ordinary convert. It is in these transient and cursory 
allusions that the argument is best founded. When a 
writer dwells and rests upon a point in which some co- 
incidence is discerned, it may be doubted whether he 
himself had not fabricated the conformity, and was endea- 
vouring to display and set it off. But when the reference 
is contained in a single word, unobserved perhaps by most 
readers, the writer passing on to other subjects, as uncon- 
scious that he had hit upon a correspondency, or unso- 



No. IV. & V. 2 TIM. ii. 22. iii. 10, 11. 181 

licitous whether it were remarked or not, we may be 
pretty well assured that no fraud was exercised, no im- 
position intended. 



No. V. 

Chap. iii. 10, 11. " But thou hast fully known my 
" doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, 
" charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came 
" unto me at Antioch^ at Iconium, at Lystra; what 
" persecutions I endured : but out of them all the Lord 
" delivered me." 

The Antioch here mentioned was not Antioch the ca- 
pital of Syria, where Paul and Barnabas resided " a long 
" time j" but Antioch in Pisidia, to which place Paul and 
Barnabas came in their first apostolic progress, and where 
Paul delivered a memorable discourse, which is preserved 
in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts. At this Antioch 
the history relates, that " the Jews stirred up the devout 
" and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, 
" and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, 
" and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook 
" off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto 
" Iconium. [xiii. 50, 51.] And it came to pass in Iconium, 
" that they went both together into the synagogue of the 
" Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of the 
" Jews and also of the Greeks believed ; but the unbe- 
" lieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their 
" minds evil-affected against the brethren. Long time 
" therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which 
" gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted 
" signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the 
" multitude of the city was divided ; and part held with 
" the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there 
" was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of 
" the Jews, with their rulers, to use them depitefully and 
" to stone them, they were ware of it, and fled unto 
" Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the 
" region that lieth round about, and there they preached 

.v 3 



182 HOR.E PAULINA. 

" the gospel, [xiv. 1 . . 7«] And there came thither cer- 
" tain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded 
" the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of 
" the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the 
" disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came 
" into the city ; and the next day he departed with Bar- 
" nabas to Derbe : and when they had preached the gos- 
" pel in that city, and had taught many, they returned 
" again to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch." [19 . . 
21.] This account comprises the period to which the 
allusion in the epistle is to be referred. We have so far, 
therefore, a conformity between the history and the epistle, 
that St. Paul is asserted in the history to have suffered 
persecutions in the three cities, his persecutions at which 
are appealed to in the epistle ; and not only so, but to 
have suffered these persecutions both in immediate suc- 
cession, and in the order in which the cities are mentioned 
in the epistle. The conformity also extends to another 
circumstance. In the apostolic history Lystra and Derbe 
are commonly mentioned together : in the quotation from 
the epistle Lystra is mentioned, and not Derbe. And the 
distinction will appear on this occasion to be accurate ; for 
St. Paul is here enumerating his persecutions : and al- 
though he underwent grievous persecutions in each of the 
three cities through which he passed to Derbe, at Derbe 
itself he met with none : " The next day he departed," 
says the historian, " to Derbe ; and when they had 
" preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, 
" they returned again to Lystra." [xiv. 21. J The epistle, 
therefore, in the names of the cities, in the order in 
which they are enumerated, and in the place at which the 
enumeration stops, corresponds exactly with the history. 

But a second question remains, namely, how these 
persecutions were " known" to Timothy, or why the 
apostle should recall these in particular to his remem- 
brance, rather than many other persecutions with which 
his ministry had been attended. When some time, pro- 
bably three years, afterwards (vide Pearson's Annales 
Paulini, pp. 7* 10.), St. Paul made a second journey 
through the same country, " in order to go again and 



No. V. 2 TIM. iii. 10, 11. 183 

" visit the brethren in every city where he had preached 
" the word of the Lord," we read, Acts xvi. 1, that, 
" when he came to Derbe and Lystra, behold a certain 
" disciple was there named Timotheus." One or other 
therefore of these cities was the place of Timothy's abode. 
We read moreover that he was well reported of by the 
brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium ; so that he 
must have been well acquainted with these places. Also, 
again, when Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, Timothy 
was already a disciple : " Behold a certain disciple was 
" there named Timotheus." He must, therefore, have 
been converted before. But since it is expressly stated 
in the epistle, that Timothy was converted by St. Paul 
himself, that he was [1 Tim. i. 2.] " his own son in the 
" faith ;" it follows that he must have been converted by 
him upon his former journey into those parts ; which was 
the very time when the apostle underwent the persecu- 
tions referred to in the epistle. Upon the whole, then, 
persecutions at the several cities named in the epistle are 
expressly recorded in the Acts ; and Timothy's knowledge 
of this part of St. Paul's history, which knowledge is ap- 
pealed to in the epistle, is fairly deduced from the place 
of his abode, and the time of his conversion. [A. xiv. 6, 
7-] It may farther be observed, that it is probable from 
this account, that St. Paul was in the midst of these per- 
secutions when Timothy became known to him. No 
wonder then that the apostle, though in a letter written 
long afterwards, should remind his favourite convert of 
those scenes of affliction and distress under which they 
first met. 

Although this coincidence, as to the names of the cities, 
be more specific and direct than many which we have 
pointed out, yet I apprehend there is no just reason for 
thinking it to be artificial ; for had the writer of the epistle 
sought a coincidence with the history upon this head, and 
searched the Acts of the Apostles for the purpose, I con- 
ceive he would have sent us at once to Philippi and 
Thessalonica, [_A. xvi. 12. xvii. 1.] where Paul suffered 
persecution, and where, from what is stated, it may easily 
be gathered that Timothy accompanied him, rather than 

N 4 



184 HORiE PAULINA. 

have appealed to persecutions as known to Timothy, in 
the account of which persecutions Timothy's presence is 
not mentioned ; it not being- till after one entire chapter, 
and in the history of a journey three years future to this, 
that Timothy's name occurs in the Acts of the Apostles 
for the first time. 



CHAP. XIII. 

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS, 

No. I. 



A very characteristic circumstance in this epistle, is the 
quotation from Epimenides, i. 12 : " One of themselves, 
" even a prophet of their own, said, ' The Cretans are 
" ' always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.' " 

Kpyjrst; asi ipsvarroci, kcckm ^rjpia, ytxvTiptq apyal. 

I call this quotation characteristic, because no writer in 
the New Testament, except St. Paul, appealed to heathen 
testimony ; and because St. Paul repeatedly did so. In 
his celebrated speech at Athens, preserved in the seven- 
teenth chapter [v. 28.]] of the Acts, he tells his audience, 
that " in God we live, and move, and have our being ; 
" as certain also of your own poets have said, ' For we are 
" ' also his offspring.'" 



tov yap kcci yavoq s.<T(azv. 



The reader will perceive much similarity of manner in 
these two passages. The reference in the speech is to a 
heathen poet ; it is the same in the epistle. In the speech 
the apostle urges his hearers with the authority of a poet 
of their own ; in the epistle he avails himself of the same 
advantage. Yet there is a variation, which shows that 
the hint of inserting a quotation in the epistle was not, as 



No. I. TIT. i. 12. 185 

it may be suspected, borrowed from seeing the like prac- 
tice attributed to St. Paul in the history ; and it is this, 
that in the epistle the author cited is called a prophet, 
" one of themselves, even a prophet of their own." What- 
ever might be the reason for calling Epimenides a prophet ; 
whether the names of poet and prophet were occasionally 
convertible ; whether Epimenides in particular had ob- 
tained that title # , as Grotius seems to have proved, or 
whether the appellation was given to him, in this in- 
stance, as having delivered a description of the Cretan 
character, which the future state of morals amongst them 
verified \ whatever was the reason (and any of these 
reasons will account for the variation, supposing St. Paul 
to have been the author), one point is plain, namely, if 
the epistle had been forged, and the author had inserted a 
quotation in it merely from having seen an example of the 
same kind in a speech ascribed to St. Paul, he would so 
far have imitated his original, as to have introduced his 
quotation in the same manner, that is, he would have 
given to Epimenides the title which he saw there given to 
Aratus. The other side of the alternative is, that the 
history took the hint from the epistle. But that the 
author of the Acts of the Apostles had not the epistle to 
Titus before him, at least that he did not use it as one of 
the documents or materials of his narrative, is rendered 
nearly certain by the observation that the name of Titus 
does not once occur in his book. 

It is well known, and was remarked by St. Jerome, 
that the apophthegm in the fifteenth chapter of the Co- 
rinthians, " Evil communications corrupt good manners/' 
is an Iambic of Menander's : [1 Cor. xv. 33.]] 

<&6$ipov<Tiv 7J07J XpfaP opiXiai kukcci. 

Here we have another unaffected instance of the same 
turn and habit of composition. Probably there are some 
hitherto unnoticed ; and more, which the loss of the 
original authors renders impossible to be now ascertained. 

* [Tully, in the person of his brother Quintus, Divin. i. 18, dis- 
tinctly mentions Epimenides the Cretan as one of the vaticinantes 
so deemed, who had the gift of divination.] 



186 HORiE PAULINA. 



No. II. 

There exists a visible affinity between the Epistle to 
Titus and the First Epistle to Timothy. Both letters 
were addressed to persons left by the writer to preside in 
their respective churches during his absence. Both letters 
are principally occupied in describing the qualifications to 
be sought for, in those whom they should appoint to offices 
in the church / and the ingredients of this description are 
in both letters nearly the same. Timothy and Titus are 
likewise cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions, 
and, in particular, against the same misdirection of their 
cares and studies. This affinity obtains, not only in the 
subject of the letters, which, from the similarity of situ- 
ation in the persons to whom they were addressed, might 
be expected to be somewhat alike, but extends, in a great 
variety of instances, to the phrases and expressions. The 
writer accosts his two friends with the same salutation, 
and passes on to the business of his letter by the same 
transition. 

" Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, 
" mercy, and peace from God our Father, and Jesus 
5 ' Christ our Lord : as I besought thee to abide still at 
" Ephesus when I went into Macedonia" &c. 1 Tim. i. 
% 8. 

" To Titus, mine own son after the common faith, 
" grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the 
" Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour : for this cause left I 
" thee in Crete/' Tit. i. 4, 5. 

If Timothy was " not to give heed to fables and endless 
*' genealogies, which minister questions" 1 Tim. i. 4 ; 
" Titus also was to avoid foolish questions, and genealo- 
i( gies, and contentions;" (iii. 9>) " and was to rebuke 
*' them sharply, not giving heed to Jeivish fables" (i. 
14.) If Timothy was to be a pattern {ruwog), 1 Tim. iv. 
IS ; so was Titus, (ii. 7») If Timothy was to " let no 
" man despise his youth," 1 Tim. iv. IS ; Titus also was 
to " let no man despise him." (ii. 15.) This verbal con- 
sent is also observable in some very peculiar expressions, 



No. II. TIT. i. 4, 5. 14. ii. 7. 15. iii. 8. 187 

which have no relation to the particular character of Timo- 
thy or Titus. 

The phrase " it is a faithful saying" (wia-Tog 6 Xo- 
yog), made use of to preface some sentence upon which 
the writer lays a more than ordinary stress, occurs three 
times in the First Epistle to Timothy, once in the Second, 
and once in the epistle before us, and in no other part of 
St. Paul's writing's : and it is remarkable that these three 
epistles were probably all written towards the conclusion 
of his life ; and that they are the only epistles which were 
written after his first imprisonment at Rome. 

The same observation belongs to another singularity of 
expression, and that is in the epithet " sound" (uyialvcov), 
as applied to words or doctrine. It is thus used, twice in 
the First Epistle to Timothy, twice in the Second, and 
three times in the Epistle to Titus, beside two cognate 
expressions uyialvovroLg ry wkttsi and "hoyov uyirj, and it 
is found, in the same sense, in no other part of the New 
Testament. 

The phrase " God our Saviour" stands in nearly the 
same predicament. It is repeated three times in the First 
Epistle to Timothy, as many in the Epistle to Titus, and 
in no other book of the New Testament occurs at all, ex- 
cept once in the Epistle of Jude. 

Similar terms, intermixed indeed with others, are em- 
ployed, in the two epistles, in enumerating the qualifi- 
cations required in those, who should be advanced to stations 
of authority in the church. 

" A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one 
" wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hos- 
" pitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not 
" greedy of filthy lucre ; but patient, not a brawler, not 
" covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having 
" his children in subjection with all gravity."* 1 Tim. iii. 
2— -4. 

" If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having 

* " Asi ovv rlv licia-KOirov dcvtittXtitnov elvai, fjuaq yvvociKoq ccv'bpa,, vf\<fa.- 
(i \iov, <ra<ppov<x, Koo-fjuov, (fiXo^svov, SiSa/cTi/cov, fAq Ttapoivov, [Ar\ itXvJktyiv, /at) 
i{ aicry^poKsptrj' dXX' elcieiK^ afAocxov, dcpiktxpyvpov '. rov Ihtov o'ikov KoeXcog npo- 



188 HOR^E PAULINA. 

" faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly:; for a 
" bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God, not 
" self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, 
" not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a 
"lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate."* 
Titus, i. 6—8. 

The most natural account which can be given of these 
resemblances, is to suppose that the two epistles were 
written nearly at the same time, and whilst the same ideas 
and phrases dwelt in the writer's mind. Let us inquire, 
therefore, whether the notes of time, extant in the two 
epistles, in any manner favour this supposition. 

We have seen that it was necessary to refer the First 
Epistle to Timothy to a date subsequent to St. Paul's first 
imprisonment at Rome, because there was no journey into 
Macedonia prior to that event, which accorded with the 
circumstance of leaving " Timothy behind at Ephesus." 
The journey of St. Paul from Crete, alluded to in the 
epistle before us, and in which Titus [i. 5,~\ " was left 
" in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting," 
must, in like manner, be carried to the period which in- 
tervened between his first and second imprisonment. For 
the history, which reaches, we know, to the time of St. 
Paul's first imprisonment, contains no account of his going 
to Crete, except upon his voyage as a prisoner to Rome ; 
and that this could not be the occasion referred to in our 
epistle is evident from hence, that when St. Paul wrote this 
epistle, he appears to have been at liberty ; whereas, after 
that voyage, he continued for two years at least, in con- 
finement. Again, it is agreed that St. Paul wrote his 
First Epistle to Timothy from Macedonia : [i. 3.] " As 
" I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went 
" (or came) into Macedonia." And that he was in these 
parts, i. e, in this peninsula, when he wrote the Epistle to 
Titus, is rendered probable by his directing Titus [iii. 12.] 

* " Et riq e<tt)v dvayKX'/jTOt;, [Mat; yvvaiKoc, di>rjp, teKva zyav tcktto,, [xtj 
" Iv KGtT'fjyopia da-ariat;, \ avvnoraKTa. As7 yap rov iiti<TKOT:ov dvsyKX'/jrov 
" elvai, uq ®eov oIkovo^ov, pv] ai/Oafy, //.07 opy/Aov, fAvj Ttapo^ov, /xt) nkrjKT'/jv, 
" f/.vj ala-xpoK£p?>rj' dXXa <piko^avov y <piXdyaOov, cruxppovay S//ca*ov, cViov, 
" syKpurrj. 



No. II. TIT. i. 6—8. i. 5. iii. 12. 189 

to come to him to Nicopolis : " When I shall send Arte- 
" mas unto thee or Tychicus, be diligent (make haste) to 
" come unto me to Nicopolis ; for I have determined there 
" to winter." The most noted city of that name was in 
Epirus, near to Actium. And I think the form of speak- 
ing*, as well as the nature of the case, renders it probable, 
that the writer was at Nicopolis, or in the neighbourhood 
thereof [or on his journey towards that city], when he 
dictated this direction to Titus. 

Upon the whole, if we may be allowed to suppose that 
St. Paul, after his liberation at Rome, sailed into Asia, 
taking Crete in his way ; that from Asia and from 
Ephesus, the capital of that country, he proceeded into 
Macedonia, and crossing the peninsula in his progress, 
came into the neighbourhood of Nicopolis ; we have a 
route which falls in with every thing. It executes the 
intention expressed by the apostle of visiting Colosse and 
Philippi as soon as he should be set at liberty at Rome. 
It allows him to leave " Titus in Crete," and " Timothy 
" at Ephesus, as he went into Macedonia ;" and to write 
to both not long after from the peninsula of Greece, and 
probably the neighbourhood of Nicopolis : thus bringing 
together the dates of these two letters, and thereby ac- 
counting for that affinity between them, both in subject 
and language, which our remarks have pointed out. I 
confess that the journey, which we have thus traced out 
for St. Paul, is, in a great measure, hypothetic ; but it 
should be observed, that it is a species of consistency, 
which seldom belongs to falsehood, to admit of an hypo- 
thesis, which includes a great number of independent cir- 
cumstances without contradiction. 



190 HORiE PAULINA. 



CHAP. XIV. 

THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

No. I. 

The singular correspondency between this epistle and that 
to the Colossians [No. IV.] has been remarked already. 
An assertion in the Epistle to the Colossians, viz. that 
" Onesimus was one of them," is verified by the Epistle to 
Philemon ; and is verified, not by any mention of Colosse, 
any the most distant intimation concerning the place of 
Philemon's abode, but singly by stating Onesimus to be 
Philemon's servant, and by joining in the salutation Phi- 
lemon with Archippus ; for this Archippus, when we go 
back to the Epistle to the Colossians, appears to have 
been an inhabitant of that city, and, as it should seem, to 
have held an office of authority in that church. The case 
stands thus. Take the Epistle to the Colossians alone, 
and no circumstance is discoverable which makes out the 
assertion, that Onesimus was " one of them." Take the 
Epistle to Philemon alone, and nothing at all appears 
concerning the place to which Philemon or his servant 
Onesimus belonged. For any thing that is said in the 
epistle, Philemon might have been a Thessalonian, a 
Philippian, or an Ephesian, as well as a Colossian. Put 
the two epistles together, and the matter is clear. The 
reader perceives a junction of circumstances, which ascer- 
tains the conclusion at once. Now, all that is necessary 
to be added in this place is, that this correspondency 
evinces the genuineness of one epistle, as well as of the 
other. It is like comparing the two parts of a cloven 
tally. Coincidence proves the authenticity of both. 



No I. & II. PHIL. 10—12. 22. 191 



No. II. 

And this coincidence is perfect ; not only in the main 
article of showing, by implication, Onesimus to be a 
Colossian, but in many dependent circumstances. 

1. " I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom 
u / have sent again." (10 — 12.) It appears from the 
Epistle to the Colossians, that, in truth, Onesimus was 
sent at that time to Colosse : " All my state shall 
" Tychicus declare, whom I have sent unto you for the 
" same purpose, icith Onesimus a faithful and beloved 
" brother." Colos. iv. 7— -9. 

2. " I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, tchom I 
" have begotten in my bonds." (10.) It appears from 
the preceding quotation, that Onesimus was with St. Paul 
when he wrote the Epistle to the Colossians ; and that he 
wrote that epistle in imprisonment is evident from his 
declaration in the fourth chapter and third verse : " Pray- 
" ing also for us, that God would open unto us a door of 
" utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I 
" am also in bonds" 

3. St. Paul bids Philemon prepare for him a lodging : 
ii For I trust," says he, " that through your prayers, I 
" shall be given unto you." This agrees with the ex- 
pectation of speedy deliverance, which he expressed in 
another epistle written during the same imprisonment : 
" Him (Timothy) I hope to send presently, so soon as 
" I shall see how it will go with me ; but I trust in the 
" Lord that I also myself shall come shortly" Philip, ii. 
23, 24. 

4. As the letter to Philemon, and that to the Colos- 
sians, were written at the same time, and sent by the same 
messenger, the one to a particular inhabitant, the other 
to the church of Colosse, it may be expected that the 
same, or nearly the same, persons would be about St. 
Paul, and join with him, as was the practice, in the salu- 
tations of the epistle. Accordingly we find the names of 
Aristarchus, Marcus, Epaphras, Luke, and Demas, in 
both epistles. Timothy, who is joined with St. Paul in 



192 HORiE PAULINiE. 

the superscription of the Epistle to the Colossians is 
joined with him in this. Tychicus did not salute Phile- 
mon, because he accompanied the Epistle to Colosse, and 
would undoubtedly there see him. Yet the reader of the 
Epistle to Philemon will remark one considerable diversity 
in the catalogue of saluting friends, and which shows that 
the catalogue was not copied from that to the Colossians. 
In the Epistle to the Colossians, Aristarchus is called by 
St. Paul his fellow-prisoner, Colos. iv. 10 ; in the Epistle 
to Philemon, Aristarchus is mentioned without any addi- 
tion, and the title of fellow-prisoner is given to Epaphras. * 
And let it also be observed, that notwithstanding the 
close and circumstantial agreement between the two 
epistles, this is not the case of an opening left in a genuine 
writing, which an impostor is induced to fill up ; nor of a 
reference to some writing not extant, which sets a sophist 
at work to supply the loss, in like manner as, because 
St. Paul was supposed, Colos. iv. 16, to allude to an 
epistle written by him to the Laodiceans, some person has 
from thence taken the hint of uttering a forgery under that 
title. The present, I say, is not that case ; for Philemon's 
name is not mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians ; 
Onesimus's servile condition is no where hinted at, any 
more than his crime, his flight, or the place or time of 
his conversion. The story, therefore, of the epistle, if it 
be a fiction, is a fiction to which the author could not 
have been guided by any thing he had read in St. Paul's 
genuine writings. 

* Dr. Benson observes, and perhaps truly, that the appellation 
of fellow-prisoner, as applied by St. Paul to Epaphras, did not im- 
ply that they were imprisoned together at the time ; any more than 
your calling a person your fellow-traveller imports that you are 
then upon your travels. If he had, upon any former occasion, tra- 
velled with you, you might afterwards speak of him under that 
title. It is just so with the term fellow-prisoner. 



No. III. PHIL. 4, 5. 193 



No. III. 

Vv. 4, 5. " I thank my God, making mention of 
" thee always in my prayers ; hearing of thy love and 
" faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and 
" toward all saints." 

" Hearing of thy love and faith" This is the form 
of speech which St. Paul was wont to use towards those 
churches which he had not seen, or then visited : see 
Rom. i. 8 ; Ephes. i. 15 ; Col. i. 3, 4. Toward those 
churches and persons, with whom he was previously 
acquainted, he employed a different phrase : as, "I thank 
" my God always on your behalf," 1 Cor. i. 4 ; 
% Thess. i. 3 ; or, " upon every remembrance of you," 
Phil. i. 3 ; 1 Thess. L % 3 ; 2 Tim. i. 3 ; and never 
speaks of hearing of them. Yet I think it must be con- 
cluded, from the nineteenth verse of this epistle, that 
Philemon had been converted by St. Paul himself : 
" Albeit, I do not say to thee, how thou oivest unto me 
" even thine own self besides." Here then is a pecu- 
liarity. Let us enquire whether the epistle supplies any 
circumstance which will account for it. We have seen 
that it may be made out, not from the epistle itself, but 
from a comparison of the epistle with that to the Colos- 
sians, that Philemon was an inhabitant of Colosse ; and 
it farther appears, from the Epistle to the Colossians, that 
St. Paul had never been in that city : "I would that ye 
" knew what great conflict I have for you and for them 
" at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face 
" in the flesh." Col. ii. 1. Although, therefore, St. Paul 
had formerly met with Philemon at some other place, and 
had been the immediate instrument of his conversion, yet 
Philemon's faith and conduct afterwards, inasmuch as he 
lived in a city which St. Paul had never visited, could 
only be known to him by fame and reputation. 



194 HORiE PAULINiE. 



No. IV. 

The tenderness and delicacy of this epistle have heen 
long" admired : " Though I might be much bold in Christ 
" to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake 
" I rather beseech thee, being such a one as Paul the 
" aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I be- 
" seech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten 
" in my bonds." There is something certainly very melt- 
ing and persuasive in this and every part of the epistle. 
Yet, in my opinion, the character of St. Paul prevails in 
it throughout. The warm, affectionate, authoritative 
teacher is interceding with an absent friend for a beloved 
convert. He urges his suit with an earnestness, befitting 
perhaps not so much the occasion, as the ardour and sen- 
sibility of his own mind. Here also, as every where, he 
shows himself conscious of the weight and dignity of his 
mission ; nor does he suffer Philemon for a moment to 
forget it : " I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin 
" thee that which is convenient." He is careful also to 
recall, though obliquely, to Philemon's memory, the sacred 
obligation under which he had laid him, by bringing to 
him the knowledge of Jesus Christ : c< I do not say to 
" thee, how thou owest to me even thine own self besides." 
Without laying aside, therefore, the apostolic character, 
our author softens the imperative style of his address, by 
mixing with it every sentiment and consideration that 
could move the heart of his correspondent. Aged and in 
prison, he is content to supplicate and entreat. Onesimus 
was rendered dear to him by his conversion and his ser- 
vices ; the child of his affliction, and " ministering unto 
" him in the bonds of the gospel." This ought to re- 
commend him, whatever had been his fault, to Philemon's 
forgiveness : " Receive him as myself, as my own 
bowels," Every thing, however, should be voluntary. 
St. Paul was determined that Philemon's compliance 
should flow from his own bounty : " Without thy mind 
" would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it 
" were of necessity, but willingly : " trusting nevertheless 



SUBSCRIPTIONS OF THE EPISTLES. 195 

to his gratitude and attachment for the performance of all 
that he requested, and for more : " Having confidence in 
" thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou 
" wilt also do more than I say." 

St. Paul's discourse at Miletus [A. xx. 18 . . .] ; his 
speech before Agrippa [xxvi. 1 . . .] ; his Epistle to the 
Romans, as hath been remarked (No. VIII.); that to the 
Galatians, iv. 11 — 20; to the Philippians, i. 29. ii. 2; 
the Second to the Corinthians, vi. 1 — 13 ; and indeed 
some part or other of almost every epistle, exhibits ex- 
amples of a similar application to the feelings and affections 
of the persons whom he addresses. And it is observable, 
that these pathetic effusions, drawn for the most part from 
his own sufferings and situation, usually precede a com- 
mand, soften a rebuke, or mitigate the harshness of some 
disagreeable truth. 



CHAP. XV. 

THE SUBSCRIPTIONS OF THE EPISTLES. 

Six of these subscriptions are false or improbable ; that 
is, they are either absolutely contradicted by the contents 
of the epistle, or are difficult to be reconciled with them. 

I. The subscription of the First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians states that it was written from Philippi, notwith- 
standing that, in the sixteenth chapter and the eighth 
verse of the epistle, St. Paul informs the Corinthians, that 
he will "tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost ;" and not- 
withstanding that he begins the salutations in the epistle, 
by telling them " the churches of Asia salute you;" a 
pretty evident indication that he himself was in Asia at 
this time. 

II. The Epistle to the Galatians is by the subscription 
dated from Rome ; yet, in the epistle itself, [i. 6. ~] St. 
Paul expresses his surprise " that they were so soon 

o 2 



196 KORM PAULINA. 

" removed from him that called them;" whereas his 
journey to Rome was ten years posterior to the conversion 
of the Galatians. And what, I think, is more conclusive, 
the author, though speaking of himself in this more than 
any other epistle, does not once mention his bonds, or call 
himself a prisoner ; which he has not failed to do in every 
one of the four epistles written from that city, and during 
that imprisonment. 

III. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was written, 
the subscription tells us, from Athens ; yet the epistle 
refers expressly to the coming of Timotheus from Thessa- 
lonica (iii. 6.) ; and the history informs us, Acts, xviii. 5, 
that Timothy came out of Macedonia to St. Paul at 
Corinth, 

IV. The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians is dated, 
and without any discoverable reason, from Athens also. 
If it be truly the second ; if it refer, as it appears to do 
(ii. 2.), to the first, and the first was written from Corinth, 
the place must be erroneously assigned, for the history 
does not allow us to suppose that St. Paul, after he had 
reached Corinth, went back to Athens. 

V. The First Epistle to Timothy the subscription 
asserts to have been sent from Laodicea ; yet, when St. 
Paul writes, [i. 3.]] " I besought thee to abide still at 
" Ephesus, 7rop£u6[j,svog iig MoLxstioviav (when I set out 
" for Macedonia)," the reader is naturally led to con- 
clude, that he wrote the letter upon his arrival in that 
country. 

VI. The Epistle to Titus is dated from Nicopolis in 
Macedonia, whilst no city of that name is known to have 
existed in that province. 

The use, and the only use, which I make of these ob- 
servations, is to show how easily errors and contradictions 
steal in where the writer is not guided by original know- 
ledge. There are only eleven distinct assignments of date 
to St. Paul's epistles (for the four written from Rome may 
be considered as plainly cotemporary) ; and of these, six 
seem to be erroneous. I do not attribute any authority to 
these subscriptions. I believe them to have been con- 
jectures founded sometimes upon loose traditions, but more 



SUBSCRIPTIONS OF THE EPISTLES. 197 

generally upon a consideration of some particular text, 
without sufficiently comparing it with other parts of the 
epistle, with different epistles, or with the history. Sup- 
pose then that the subscriptions had come down to us as 
authentic parts of the epistles, there would have been more 
contrarieties and difficulties arising out of these final verses, 
than from all the rest of the volume. Yet, if the epistles 
had been forged, the whole must have been made up of 
the same elements as those of which the subscriptions are 
composed, viz. tradition, conjecture, and inference : and it 
would have remained to be accounted for, how, whilst so 
many errors were crowded into the concluding clauses of 
the letters, so much consistency should be preserved in 
other parts. 

The same reflection arises from observing the oversights 
and mistakes which learned men have committed, when 
arguing upon allusions which relate to time and place, or 
when endeavouring to digest scattered circumstances into 
a continued story. It is indeed the same case ; for these 
subscriptions must be regarded as ancient scholia, and as 
nothing more. Of this liability to error I can present the 
reader with a notable instance ; and which I bring for- 
ward for no other purpose than that to which I apply the 
erroneous subscriptions. Ludovicus Cappellus, in that 
part of his Historia Apostolica Illustrata, which is entitled 
De Ordtne'Eipist. Paul., writing [p. 73.] upon the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians, triumphs unmercifully over 
the want of sagacity in [Cardinal] Baronius, who, it 
seems, [in his Annales Ecclesiastici, ad A. Chr. 58. 
§36.] makes St. Paul write his Epistle to Titus from 
Macedonia upon his second visit into that province ; 
whereas it appears from the history, that Titus, instead of 
being in Crete, where the epistle places him, was at that 
time sent by the apostle from Macedonia to Corinth. 
" Animadvertere est," says Cappellus, " magnam hominis 
" illius a0Xe\[//a:/, qui vult Titum a Paulo in Cretam ab- 
" ductum, illicque relictum, cum inde Nicopolim navigaret, 
" quern tamen agnoscit a Paulo ex Macedonia missum 
" esse Corinthum." This probably will be thought a 
detection of inconsistency in Baronius. But what is the 

o 3 



198 UOUJE FAULINiE. 

most remarkable, is, that in the same chapter in which he 
thus indulges his contempt of Baronius's judgment, Cap- 
pellus himself falls into an error of the same kind, and 
more gross and palpable than that which he reproves. 
For he begins the chapter [p. 7^0 °y statul g tne Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians and the First Epistle to Timothy 
to be nearly cotemporary ; to have been both written 
during the apostle's second visit into Macedonia ; and 
that a doubt subsisted concerning the immediate priority 
of their dates : " Posterior ad eosdem Corinthios epistola, 
" et prior ad Timotheum certant de prioritate, et sub 
" judice lis est \ utraque autem scripta est paulo postquam 
" Paulus Epheso discessisset, adeoque dum Macedoniam 
" peragraret, sed utra tempore prsecedat, non liquet." 
Now, in the first place, it is highly improbable that the 
two epistles should have been written either nearly to- 
gether, or during the same journey through Macedonia ; 
for in the Epistle to the Corinthians, Timothy appears to 
have been ivith St. Paul ; in the epistle addressed to him, 
to have been left behind at Ephesus, and not only left be- 
hind, but directed to continue there, till St. Paul should 
return to that city. In the second place, it is inconceivable ? 
that a question should be proposed concerning the priority 
of date of the two epistles : for, when St. Paul, in his 
Epistle to Timothy, opens his address to him by saying, 
" as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went 
" into Macedonia," no reader can doubt but that he here 
refers to the last interview which had passed between 
them ; that he had not seen him since : whereas if the 
epistle be posterior to that to the Corinthians, yet written 
upon the same visit into Macedonia, this could not be 
true ; for as Timothy was along with St. Paul when he 
wrote to the Corinthians, he must, upon this supposition, 
have passed over to St. Paul in Macedonia after he had 
been left by him at Ephesus, and must have returned to 
Ephesus again before the epistle was written. What 
misled Ludovicus Cappellus was simply this, that he had 
entirely overlooked Timothy's name in the superscription 
of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Which over- 
sight appears not only in the quotation which we have 



CONCLUSION. 199 

given, but from his telling us, as he does, that Timothy 
came from Ephesus to St. Paul at Corinth, whereas the 
superscription proves that Timothy was already with St. 
Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians from Macedonia. 



CHAP. XVI. 



THE CONCLUSION. 



In the outset of this inquiry, the reader was directed to 
consider the Acts of the Apostles and the thirteen epistles 
of St. Paul as certain ancient manuscripts lately disco- 
vered in the closet of some celebrated library. We have 
adhered to this view of the subject. External evidence 
of every kind has been removed out of sight ; and our 
endeavours have been employed to collect the indications 
of truth and authenticity, which appeared to exist in the 
writings themselves, and to result from a comparison of 
their different parts. It is not however necessary to 
continue this supposition longer. The testimony which 
other remains of cotemporary, or the monuments of ad- 
joining ages afford to the reception, notoriety, and public 
estimation of a book, form no doubt the first proof of its 
genuineness. And in no books whatever is this proof 
more complete, than in those at present under our con- 
sideration. The inquiries of learned men, and, above all, 
of the excellent Lardner, who never overstates a point of 
evidence, and whose fidelity in citing his authorities has 
in no one instance been impeached, have established, con- 
cerning these writings, the following propositions : — 

I. That in the age immediately posterior to that in 
which St. Paul lived, his letters were publicly read and 
acknowledged. 

Some of them are quoted or alluded to by almost every 
Christian writer that followed, by Clement of Rome, by 
Hernias, by Ignatius, by Polycarp, disciples or cotem- 

o 4 



200 HORiE PAUL1NJE. 

poraries of the apostles ; by Justin Martyr, by the churches 
of Gaul, by Irenseus, by Athenagoras, by Theophilus, by 
Clement of Alexandria, by Hermias, by Tertullian, who 
occupied the succeeding age. Now when we find a book 
quoted or referred to by an ancient author, we are en- 
titled to conclude, that it was read and received in the 
age and country in which that author lived. And this 
conclusion does not, in any degree, rest upon the judg- 
ment or character of the author making such reference. 
Proceeding by this rule, we have, concerning the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians in particular, within forty years 
after the epistle was written, evidence, not only of its 
being extant at Corinth, but of its being known and read 
at Rome. Clement, bishop of that city, writing to the 
church of Corinth, uses these words : [c. 47.] " Take 
" into your hands the epistle of the blessed Paul the 
" apostle. What did he at first write unto you in the 
" beginning of the gospel ? Verily he did by the Spirit 
" admonish you concerning himself and Cephas and Apol- 
" los, because that even then you did form parties." # 
This was written at a time when probably some must 
have been living at Corinth, who remembered St. Paul's 
ministry there and the receipt of the epistle. [The name 
of Fortunatus does occur, c. 58, that of a Corinthian well 
known to St. Paul, 1 Cor. xvi. 17-] 

The testimony is still more valuable, as it shows that 
the epistles were preserved in the churches to which they 
were sent, and that they were spread and propagated from 
them to the rest of the Christian community. Agreeably 
to which natural mode and order of their publication, 
Tertullian, a century afterwards, for proof of the integrity 
and genuineness of the apostolic writings, bids " any one, 
" who is willing to exercise his curiosity profitably in 
<f the business of their salvation, to visit the apostolical 
" churches, in which their very authentic letters are re- 
" cited, ipsse authentic^ literse eorum recitantur." Then 
he goes on : " Is Achaia near you ? You have Corinth. 
" If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, 

* See Lardner, vol. xii. p. 22. 



CONCLUSION. 201 

" you have Thessalonica. If you can go to Asia, you 
" have Ephesus ; but if you are near to Italy, you have 
" Rome." * I adduce this passage to show, that the 
distinct churches or Christian societies, to which St. Paul's 
epistles were sent, subsisted for some ages afterwards ; 
that his several epistles were all along respectively read 
in those churches ; that Christians at large received them 
from those churches, and appealed to those churches for 
their original and authenticity. 

Arguing in like manner from citations and allusions, 
we have, within the space of a hundred and fifty years 
from the time that the first of St. Paul's epistles was 
written, proofs of almost all of them being read, in Pa- 
lestine, Syria, the countries of Asia Minor, in Egypt, in 
that part of Africa which used the Latin tongue, in Greece, 
Italy, and Gaul, f I do not mean simply to assert, that, 
within the space of a hundred and fifty years, St. Paul's 
epistles were read in those countries, for I believe that 
they were read and circulated from the beginning ; but 
that proofs of their being so read occur within that pe- 
riod. And when it is considered how few of the primi- 
tive Christians wrote, and of what was written how much 
is lost, we are to account it extraordinary, or rather as a 
sure proof of the extensiveness of the reputation of these 
writings, and of the general respect in which they were 
held, that so many testimonies, and of such antiquity, are 
still extant. " In the remaining works of Irenseus, Cle- 
" ment of Alexandria, and Tertullian, there are perhaps 
" more and larger quotations of the small volume of the 
" New Testament, than of all the works of Cicero, in the 
" writings of all characters for several ages." t We must 
add, that the epistles of Paul come in for their full share 
of this observation ; and that all the thirteen epistles, ex- 
cept that to Philemon, which is not quoted by Irenaaus or 
Clement, and which probably escaped notice merely by its 
brevity, are severally cited, and expressly recognised as 
St. Paul's, by each of these Christian writers. The 

* Lardner, vol. ii. p. 598. 

f Vide Lardner's Recapitulation, vol. xii. p. 53. 

X Ibid. 



202 HOR^ PAULINA. 

Ebionites, an early, though inconsiderable Christian sect, 
rejected St. Paul and his epistles* ; that is, they rejected 
these epistles, not because they were not, but because they 
were St. Paul's ; and because, adhering to the obligation 
of the Jewish law, they chose to dispute his doctrine and 
authority. Their suffrage as to the genuineness of the 
epistles does not contradict that of other Christians. Mar- 
cion, an heretical writer in the former part of the second 
century, is said by Tertullian to have rejected three of the 
epistles which we now receive, viz. the two Epistles to 
Timothy and the Epistle to Titus. It appears to me not 
improbable, that Marcion might make some such distinc- 
tion as this, that no apostolic epistle was to be admitted 
which was not read or attested by the church to which it 
was sent ; for it is remarkable that, together with these 
epistles to private persons, he rejected also the catholic 
epistles. Now the catholic epistles and the epistles to 
private persons agree in the circumstance of wanting this 
particular species of attestation. Marcion, it seems, ac- 
knowledged the Epistle to Philemon, and is upbraided for 
his inconsistency in doing so by Tertullian t, who asks 
" why, when he received a letter written to a single per- 
" son, he should refuse two to Timothy and one to Titus 
" composed upon the affairs of the church ?" This pas- 
sage so far favours our account of Marcion's objection, as 
it shows that the objection was supposed by Tertullian to 
have been founded in something, which belonged to the 
nature of a private letter. 

Nothing of the works of Marcion remains. Probably 
he was, after all, a rash, arbitrary, licentious critic (if he 
deserved indeed the name of critic), and who offered no 
reason for his determination. What St. Jerome says of 
him intimates this, and is beside founded in good sense ; 
speaking of him and Basilides, " if they had assigned any 
" reasons," says he, " why they did not reckon these 
" epistles," viz. the First and Second to Timothy and 
the Epistle to Titus, "to be the apostle's, we would 
" have endeavoured to have answered them, and perhaps 

* Lardner, vol. ii. p. 808. f Ibid. vol. xiv. p. 455. 



CONCLUSION, 203 

" might have satisfied the reader ; but when they take 
" upon them, by their own authority, to pronounce one 
" epistle to be Paul's, and another not, they can only be 
i( replied to in the same manner." * Let it be remem- 
bered, however, that Marcion received ten of these epistles. 
His authority, therefore, even if his credit had been better 
than it is, forms a very small exception to the uniformity 
of the evidence. Of Basilides we know still less than we 
do of Marcion. The same observation however belongs 
to him, viz. that his objection, as far as appears from this 
passage of St. Jerome, was confined to the three private 
epistles. Yet is this the only opinion which can be said 
to disturb the consent of the two first centuries of the 
Christian sera ; for as to Tatian, who is reported by Je- 
rome alone to have rejected some of St. Paul's epistles, 
the extravagant or rather delirious notions into which he 
fell, take away all weight and credit from his judgment. 
If, indeed, Jerome's account of this circumstance be cor- 
rect ; for it appears from much older writers than Jerome, 
that Tatian owned and used many of these epistles. t 

II. They, who in those ages disputed about so many 
other points, agreed in acknowledging the scriptures now 
before us. Contending sects appealed to them in their 
controversies with equal and unreserved submission. When 
they were urged by one side, however they might be in- 
terpreted or misinterpreted by the other, their authority 
was not questioned : " Reliqui omnes," says Irenseus, 
speaking of Marcion, " falso sciential nomine inflati, 
" scripturas quidem confitentur, interpretationes vero con- 
" vertunt." t 

III. When the genuineness of some other writings 
which were in circulation, and even of a few which are 
now received into the canon, was contested, these were 
never called into dispute. Whatever was the objection, 
or whether, in truth, there ever was any real objection to 
the authenticity of the Second Epistle of Peter, the 
Second and Third of John, the Epistle of James, or that 
of Jude, or to the book of the Revelations of St. John, 

* Lardner, vol. xiv. p. 458. t Ibid. vol. i. p. 313. 

X Iren. advers. Hser. quoted by Lardner, vol. xv. p. 425. 



204 HORiE PAULINiE. 

the doubts that appear to have been entertained concerning 
them, exceedingly strengthen the force of the testimony as 
to those writings, about which there was no doubt ; be- 
cause it shows, that the matter was a subject, amongst 
the early Christians, of examination and discussion, and 
that, where there was any room to doubt, they did doubt. 

What Eusebius hath left upon the subject is directly to 
the purpose of this observation. Eusebius, it is well 
known, divided the ecclesiastical writings which were 
extant in his time into three classes ; the " auaurt^prjra 
" uncontradicted," as he calls them in one chapter ; or 
" scriptures universally acknowledged," as he calls them 
in another ; the " controverted, yet well known and ap- 
" proved by many;" and the " spurious." What were 
the shades of difference in the books of the second, or in 
those of the third class ; or what it was precisely that he 
meant by the term spurious, it is not necessary in this 
place to enquire. It is sufficient for us to find, that the 
thirteen epistles of St. Paul are placed by him in the first 
class without any sort of hesitation or doubt. 

It is farther also to be collected from the chapter in 
which this distinction is laid down, that the method made 
use of by Eusebius, and by the Christians of his time, 
viz. the close of the third century, in judging concerning 
the sacred authority of any books, was to enquire after 
and consider the testimony of those who lived near the 
age of the apostles.* 

IV. No ancient writing, which is attested as these 
epistles are, hath had its authenticity disproved, or is 
in fact questioned. The controversies which have been 
moved concerning suspected writings, as the epistles, for 
instance, of Phalaris, or the eighteen epistles of Cicero, 
begin by showing that this attestation is wanting. That 
being proved, the question is thrown back upon internal 
marks of spuriousness or authenticity ; and in these the 
dispute is occupied. In which disputes it is to be ob- 
served, that the contested writings are commonly attacked 
by arguments drawn from some opposition which they 

* Lardner, vol. viii. p. 106. 



CONCLUSION. 205 

betray to " authentic history," to "true epistles," to "the 
" real sentiments or circumstances of the author whom 
" they personate*;" which authentic history, which true 
epistles, which real sentiments themselves, are no other 
than ancient documents, whose early existence and recep- 
tion can be proved, in the manner in which the writings 
before us are traced up to the age of their reputed author, 
or to ages near to his. A modern, who sits down to 
compose the history of some ancient period, has no 
stronger evidence to appeal to for the most confident as- 
sertion, or the most undisputed fact, that he delivers, 
than writings, whose genuineness is proved by the same 
medium through which we evince the authenticity of 
ours. Nor, whilst he can have recourse to such autho- 
rities as these, does he apprehend any uncertainty in his 
accounts, from the suspicion of spuriousness or impos- 
ture in his materials. 

V. It cannot be shown that any forgeries properly so 
called t, that is, writings published under the name of the 
person who did not compose them, made their appearance 
in the first century of the Christian eera, in which century 
these epistles undoubtedly existed. I shall set down 
under this proposition the guarded words of Lardner him- 
self : " There are no quotations of any of them (spurious 
" and apocryphal books) in the apostolical fathers, by 
" whom I mean Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hernias, 
" Ignatius, and Polycarp, whose writings reach from the 
" year of our Lord 70 to the year 108. I say this con- 
" Jidently, because I think it has been proved" Lardner, 
vol. xii. p. 158. 

Nor when they did appear were they much used by the 
primitive Christians. " Irenseus quotes not any of these 
" books. He mentions some of them, but he never 
"quotes them. The same may be said of Tertullian : he 

* See the tracts written in the controversy between Tunstal and 
Middleton upon certain suspected epistles ascribed to Cicero. 

f I believe that there is a great deal of truth in Dr. Lardner's 
observations, that comparatively few of those books, which we call 
apocryphal, were strictly and originally forgeries. See Lardner, 
vol xii. p. 167. 



206 HORiE PAULINA. 

" has mentioned a book called * Acts of Paul and Thecla ;' 
" but it is only to condemn it. Clement of Alexandria and 
" Origen have mentioned and quoted several such books, 
" but never as authority, and sometimes with express 
" marks of dislike. Eusebius quotes no such books in 
" any of his works. He has mentioned them indeed, 
u but how ? Not by way of approbation, but to show that 
" they were of little or no value ; and that they never 
" were received by the sounder part of Christians." Now 
if with this, which is advanced after the most minute and 
diligent examination, we compare what the same cautious 
writer had before said of our received scriptures, " that 
" in the works of three only of the above-mentioned 
" fathers, there are more and larger quotations of the 
" small volume of the New Testament, than of all the 
" works of Cicero in the writers of all characters for 
" several ages ;" and if, with the marks of obscurity or 
condemnation, which accompanied the mention of the 
several apocryphal Christian writings, when they hap- 
pened to be mentioned at all, we contrast what Dr. Lard- 
ner's work completely and in detail makes out concerning 
the writings which we defend, and what, having so made 
out, he thought himself authorised in his conclusion to 
assert, that these books were not only received from the 
beginning, but received with the greatest respect ; have 
been publicly and solemnly read in the assemblies of 
Christians throughout the world, in every age from that 
time to this ; early translated into the languages of divers 
countries and people ; commentaries writ to explain and 
illustrate them ; quoted by way of proof in all arguments 
of a religious nature ; recommended to the perusal of un- 
believers, as containing the authentic account of the Chris- 
tian doctrine ; — when we attend, I say, to this represent- 
ation, we perceive in it, not only full proof of the early 
notoriety of these books, but a clear and sensible line of 
discrimination, which separates these from the pretensions 
of any others. 

The epistles of St. Paul stand particularly free of any 
doubt or confusion that might arise from this source. 
Until the conclusion of the fourth century, no intimation 



CONCLUSION. 207 

appears of any attempt whatever being made to counter- 
feit these writings ; and then it appears only of a single 
and obscure instance. Jerome, who flourished in the 
year 392, has this expression : " Legunt quidam et ad 
" Laodicenses ; sed ab omnibus exploditur ;" there is also 
an epistle to the Laodiceans, but it is rejected by every- 
body.* Theodoret, who wrote in the year 423, speaks of 
this epistle in the same terms. t Beside these I know 
not whether any ancient writer mentions it. It was cer- 
tainly unnoticed during the three first centuries of the 
church ; and when it came afterwards to be mentioned, it 
was mentioned only to show, that, though such a writing 
did exist, it obtained no credit. It is probable that the 
forgery to which Jerome alludes, is the epistle which we 
now have under that title. If so, as hath been already 
observed, it is nothing more than a collection of sentences 
from the genuine epistles ; and was, perhaps, at first, 
rather the exercise of some idle pen, than any serious 
attempt to impose a forgery upon the public. Of an 
epistle to the Corinthians under St. Paul's name, which 
was brought into Europe in the present century, antiquity 
is entirely silent. It was unheard of for sixteen centuries ; 
and at this day, though it be extant, and was first found 
in the Armenian language, it is not, by the Christians of 
that country, received into their scriptures. I hope, after 
this, that there is no reader who will think there is any 
competition of credit, or of external proof, between these 
and the received epistles ; or rather who will not acknow- 
ledge the evidence of authenticity to be confirmed by the 
want of success which attended imposture. 

When we take into our hands the letters which the 
suffrage and consent of antiquity hath thus transmitted to 
us, the first thing that strikes our attention is the air of 
reality and business, as well as of seriousness and convic- 
tion, which pervades the whole. Let the sceptic read 
them. If he be not sensible of these qualities in them, 
the argument can have no weight with him. If he be ; 
if he perceive in almost every page the language of a 

* Lardner, vol. x. p. 103. f Ibid. vol. xi. p. 88. 



208 HOR^ PAULINiE. 

mind, actuated by real occasions, and operating upon real 
circumstances, I would wish it to be observed, that the 
proof which arises from this perception is not to be 
deemed occult or imaginary, because it is incapable of 
being drawn out in words, or of being conveyed to the 
apprehension of the reader in any other way, than by 
sending him to the books themselves. 

And here, in its proper place, comes in the argument 
which it has been the office of these pages to unfold, 
St. Paul's epistles are connected with his history by their 
particularity, and by the numerous circumstances which 
are found in them. When we descend to an examination 
and comparison of these circumstances, we not only ob- 
serve the history and the epistles to be independent docu- 
ments, unknown to, or at least unconsulted by, each 
other, but we find the substance, and oftentimes very 
minute articles, of the history, recognised in the epistles, 
by allusions and references, which can neither be imputed 
to design, nor, without a foundation in truth, be accounted 
for by accident ; by hints and expressions and single 
words dropping as it were fortuitously from the pen of 
the writer, or drawn forth, each by some occasion proper 
to the place in which it occurs, but widely removed from 
any view to consistency or agreement. These, we know, 
are effects which reality naturally produces, but which, 
without reality at the bottom, can hardly be conceived to 
exist. 

When, therefore, with a body of external evidence, 
which is relied upon, and which experience proves may 
safely be relied upon, in appreciating the credit of ancient 
writings, we combine characters of genuineness and 
originality which are not found, and which, in the nature 
and order of things, cannot be expected to be found, in 
spurious compositions ; whatever difficulties we may meet 
with in other topics of the Christian evidence, we can 
have little in yielding our assent to the following conclu- 
sions : That there was such a person as St. Paul ; that he 
lived in the age which we ascribe to him ; that he went 
about preaching the religion of which Jesus Christ was 
the founder ; and that the letters which we now read were 



CONCLUSION. 209 

actually written by him upon the subject, and in the 
course of that his ministry. 

And if it be true that we are in possession of the very 
letters which St. Paul wrote, let us consider what confirm- 
ation they afford to the Christian history. In my opinion 
they substantiate the whole transaction. The great object 
of modern research is to come at the epistolary corre- 
spondence of the times. Amidst the obscurities, the silence, 
or the contradictions of history, if a letter can be found, 
we regard it as the discovery of a landmark ; as that by 
which we can correct, adjust, or supply the imperfections 
and uncertainties of other accounts. One cause of the 
superior credit which is attributed to letters is this, that 
the facts which they disclose, generally come out incident- 
ally, and therefore without design to mislead the public 
by false or exaggerated accounts. This reason may be 
applied to St. Paul's epistles with as much justice as to 
any letters whatever. Nothing could be farther from the 
intention of the writer than to record any part of his 
history. That his history was in fact made public by 
these letters, and has by the same means been transmitted 
to future ages, is a secondary and unthought of effect. 
The sincerity, therefore, of the apostle's declarations cannot 
reasonably be disputed ; at least we are sure that it was not 
vitiated by any desire of setting himself off to the public 
at large. But these letters form a part of the muniments 
of Christianity, as much to be valued for their contents as 
for their originality. A more inestimable treasure the 
care of antiquity could not have sent down to us. Beside 
the proof they afford of the general reality of St. Paul's 
history, of the knowledge which the author of the Acts 
of the Apostles had obtained of that history, and the 
consequent probability that he was, what he professes 
himself to have been, a companion of the apostle's ; be- 
side the support they lend to these important inferences, 
they meet specifically some of the principal objections 
upon which the adversaries of Christianity have thought 
proper to rely. In particular they show, 

I. That Christianity was not a story set on foot amidst 
the confusions which attended and immediately preceded 



210 HOR^ PAULINJE. 

the destruction of Jerusalem ; when many extravagant 
reports were circulated, when men's minds were broken 
by terror and distress, when amidst the tumults that sur- 
rounded them enquiry was impracticable. These letters 
show incontestably that the religion had fixed and esta- 
blished itself before this state of things took place. 

II. Whereas it hath been insinuated, that our gospels 
may have been made up of reports and stories which were 
current at the time, we may observe that, with respect to 
the epistles, this is impossible. A man cannot write the 
history of his own life from reports ; nor, what is the 
same thing, be led by reports to refer to passages and 
transactions in which he states himself to have been im- 
mediately present and active. I do not allow that this 
insinuation is applied to the historical part of the New 
Testament with any colour of justice or probability ; but 
I say, that to the epistles it is not applicable at all. 

III. These letters prove that the converts to Christianity 
were not drawn from the barbarous, the mean, or the 
ignorant set of men, which the representations of infidelity 
would sometimes make them. We learn from letters the 
character not only of the writer, but, in some measure, of 
the persons to whom they are written. To suppose that 
these letters were addressed to a rude tribe, incapable of 
thought or reflection, is just as reasonable as to suppose 
Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding to have 
been written for the instruction of savages. Whatever 
may be thought of these letters in other respects, either 
of diction or argument, they are certainly removed as far 
as possible from the habits and comprehension of a bar- 
barous people. 

IV. St. Paul's history, I mean so much of it as may 
be collected from his letters, is so implicated with that 
of the other apostles, and with the substance indeed of the 
Christian history itself, that I apprehend it will be found 
impossible to admit St. Paul's story (I do not speak of 
the miraculous part of it) to be true, and yet to reject the 
rest as fabulous. For instance, can any one believe that 
there was such a man as Paul, a preacher of Christianity 
in the age which we assign to him, and not believe that 



CONCLUSION. 211 

there were also at the same time such men as Peter and 
James, and other apostles, who had been companions of 
Christ during his life, and who after his death published 
and avowed the same things concerning him which Paul 
taught ? Judea, and especially Jerusalem, was the scene 
of Christ's ministry. The witnesses of his miracles lived 
there. St. Paul, by his own account, as well as that of 
his historian, appears to have frequently visited this city ; 
to have carried on a communication with the church there ; 
to have associated with the rulers and elders of that 
church, who were some of them apostles ; to have acted, 
as occasions offered, in correspondence, and sometimes in 
conjunction with them. Can it, after this, be doubted, 
but that the religion and the general facts relating to it, 
which St. Paul appears by his letters to have delivered to 
the several churches which he established at a distance, 
were, at the same time, taught and published at Jerusalem 
itself, the place where the business was transacted ; and 
taught and published by those who had attended the 
founder of the institution in his miraculous, or pretendedly 
miraculous, ministry ? 

It is observable, for so it appears both in the epistles 
and from the Acts of the Apostles, that Jerusalem, and 
the society of believers in that city, long continued the 
centre from which the missionaries of the religion issued, 
with which all other churches maintained a correspond- 
ence and connection, to which they referred their doubts, 
and to whose relief, in times of public distress, they re- 
mitted their charitable assistance. This observation I 
think material, because it proves that this was not the 
case of giving out accounts in one country of what is 
transacted in another, without affording the hearers an 
opportunity of knowing whether the things related were 
credited by any, or even published, in the place where 
they are reported to have passed. 

V. St. Paul's letters furnish evidence (and what better 
evidence than a man's own letters can be desired ?) of the 
soundness and sobriety of his judgment. His caution in 
distinguishing between the occasional suggestions of in- 
spiration, and the ordinary exercise of his natural under- 

p 2 



12 R0R7E PAULINiE. 

standing, is without example in the history of human 
enthusiasm. His morality is everywhere calm, pure, and 
rational ; adapted to the condition, the activity, and the 
business of social life, and of its various relations ; free 
from the over-scrupulousness and austerities of super- 
stition, and from, what was more perhaps to be appre- 
hended, the abstractions of quietism, and the soarings or 
extravagancies of fanaticism. His judgment concerning 
a hesitating conscience ; his opinion of the moral indif- 
ferency of many actions, yet of the prudence and even the 
duty of compliance, where non-compliance would produce 
evil effects upon the minds of the persons who observed it, 
is as correct and just as the most liberal and enlightened 
moralist could form at this day. The accuracy of modern 
ethics [enlightened as it is by the Gospel] has found 
nothing to amend in these determinations. 

What Lord Lyttleton has remarked of the preference 
ascribed by St. Paul to inward rectitude of principle above 
every other religious accomplishment, is very material to 
our present purpose. " In his First Epistle to the Co- 
" rinthians, ch. xiii. ver. 1 — 3, St. Paul has these words : 
" Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 
" and have not charity ', I am become as sounding brass, 
" or a tinkling cymbal. JLnd though I have the gift of 
"prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knoiu- 
" ledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could 
" remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 
" j4.nd though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 
" and though I give my body to be burned, and have not 
" charity, it profit eth me nothing. Is this the language 
" of enthusiasm ? Did ever enthusiast prefer that uni- 
" ver sal benevolence which comprehendeth all moral vir- 
" tues, and which, as appear eth by the following verses, 
" is meant by charity here ; did ever enthusiast, I say, 
" prefer that benevolence" (which, we may add, is attain- 
able by every man) " to faith and to miracles, to those 
" religious opinions which he had embraced, and to those 
" supernatural graces and gifts which he imagined he had 
" acquired ; nay, even to the merit of martyrdom ? Is it 
" not the genius of enthusiasm to set moral virtues in- 



CONCLUSION. 213 

C{ finitely below the merit of faith ; and of all moral vir- 
u tues to value that least which is most particularly 
6( enforced by St. Paul, a spirit of candour, moderation, 
" and peace ? Certainly neither the temper nor the 
il opinions of a man subject to fanatic delusions are to be 
" found in this passage." — Lord Lyttleton's Consider- 
ations on the Conversion, &c. 

I see no reason therefore to question the integrity of 
his understanding. To call him a visionary, because he 
appealed to visions ; or an enthusiast, because he pre- 
tended to inspiration, is to take the whole question for 
granted. It is to take for granted that no such visions 
or inspirations existed ; at least it is to assume, contrary 
to his own assertions, that he had no other proofs than 
these to offer of his mission, or of the truth of his rela- 
tions. 

One thing I allow, that his letters every where discover 
great zeal and earnestness in the cause in which he was 
engaged ; that is to say, he was convinced of the truth of 
what he taught ; he was deeply impressed, but not more 
so than the occasion merited, with a sense of its import- 
ance. This produces a corresponding animation and so- 
licitude in the exercise of his ministry. But would not 
these considerations, supposing them to be well founded, 
have holden the same place, and produced the same effect, 
in a mind the strongest and the most sedate ? 

VI. These letters are decisive as to the sufferings of 
the author ; also as to the distressed state of the Christian 
church, and the dangers which attended the preaching of 
the gospel. 

" Whereof I Paul am made a minister, who now re- 
" joice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which 
" is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his 
" body's sake, which is the church." Col. i. 24. 

" If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of 
" all men most miserable." 1 Cor. xv. 19. 

" Why stand we in jeopardy every hour ? I protest 
" by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, I die 
" daily. If, after the manner of men, I have fought with 

p3 



214 H0R7E PAULINiE. 

" beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead 
" rise not ? " 1 Cor. xv. 30, &c. 

" If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
" with Christ : if so be that we suffer with him, that we 
" may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the 
" sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
" compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." 
Rom. viii. 17, 18. 

" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall 
" tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
" nakedness, or peril, or sword ? As it is written, For 
" thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are ac- 
" counted as sheep for the slaughter." Rom. viii. 35, 36. 

" Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing 
" instant in prayer." Rom. xii. IS. 

" Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of 
" the Lord; yet I give my judgment, as one that hath 
" obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose 
" therefore that this is good for the present distress ; I 
" say, that it is good for a man so to be." 1 Cor. vii. 
25, 26. 

" For unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not 
" only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake ; 
" having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now 
" hear to be in me." Philip, i. 29, 30. 

" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of 
" our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
" unto me, and I unto the world." 

" From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear 
" in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Gal. vi. 
14. 17- 

" Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having 
" received the word in much affliction, with joy of the 
" Holy Ghost." 1 Thess. i. 6. 

" We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God 
" for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and 
" tribulations that ye endure." 2 Thess. i. 4. 

We may seem to have accumulated texts unnecessarily ; 
but beside that the point, which they are brought to prove, 



CONCLUSION. 215 

is of great importance, there is this also to be remarked 
in every one of the passages cited, that the allusion is 
drawn from the writer by the argument or the occasion ; 
that the notice which is taken of his sufferings, and of the 
suffering condition of Christianity, is perfectly incidental, 
and is dictated by no design of stating the facts them- 
selves. Indeed they are not stated at all : they may 
rather be said to be assumed. This is a distinction upon 
which we have relied a good deal in former parts of this 
treatise ; and where the writer's information cannot be 
doubted, it always, in my opinion, adds greatly to the 
value and credit of the testimony. 

If any reader require from the apostle more direct a^d 
explicit assertions of the same thing, he will receive full 
satisfaction in the following quotations : — 

" Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool) I 
" am more ; in labours more abundant, in stripes above 
" measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of 
" the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one ; 
" thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned ; thrice 
" I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in 
" the deep ; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
" perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in 
" perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in 
" the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among 
" false brethren ; in weariness and painfullness, in watch- 
" ings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in 
" cold and nakedness." 2 Cor. xi, 23—28. 

Can it be necessary to add more ? "I think that God 
" hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed 
" to death ; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, 
" and to angels, and to men. — Even unto this present 
" hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and 
" are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and 
" labour, working with our own hands : being reviled, 
" we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer it \ being de- 
" famed, we entreat : we are made as the filth of the 
" earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this 
" day." 1 Cor. iv. 9 — 13. I subjoin this passage to 
the former, because it extends to the other apostles of 



216 RORM PAULINiE. 

Christianity much of that which St. Paul declared con- 
cerning himself. 

In the following quotations, the reference to the author's 
sufferings is accompanied with a specification of time and 
place, and with an appeal for the truth of what he declares 
to the knowledge of the persons whom he addresses : 
" Even after that we had suffered before, and were shame- 
" fully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold 
" in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with 
" much contention." 1 Thess. ii. 2. 

" But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of 
" life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, persecutions, afflic- 
" tions, which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at 
" Lystra ; what persecutions I endured: but out of 
" them all the Lord delivered me." 2 Tim. iii. 10, 11. 

I apprehend that to this point, as far as the testimony 
of St. Paul is credited, the evidence from his letters is 
complete and full. It appears under every form in which 
it could appear, by occasional allusions and by direct asser- 
tions, by general declarations and by specific examples. 

VII. St. Paul in these letters asserts, in positive and 
unequivocal terms, his performance of miracles strictly and 
properly so called. 

" He therefore that ministereth to you the spirit, and 
" worketh miracles (Ivspycov $vuoL(JLsig) among you, doeth 
" he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of 
" faith ? " Gal. iii. 5. 

" For I will not dare to speak of those things which 
" Christ hath not wrought by me*, to make the Gentiles 
" obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and 
" wonders (Iv $vva[A£i frr^ziayv xou rsparwu"), by the 
" power of the Spirit of God ; so that from Jerusalem 
" and round about unto Illyricum I have fully preached 
" the gospel of Christ." Rom. xv. 18, 19. 

" Truly the signs cf an apostle were wrought among 
" you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty 

* i. e. " I will speak of nothing but what Christ hath wrought 
" by me ;" or, as Grotius interprets it, " Christ hath wrought so 
" great things by me, that I will not dare csav what he hath not 
" wrought." 



CONCLUSION. 217 

deeds" (Iv <rrifj.sioig xou rspacri xa.) o\^a/jts<n # ). 2 Cor. 
xii. 12. 

These words, signs, wonders, and mighty deeds (<ngju,e*a, 
Koi rspoLTOL, xou §i>va,[Asig), are the specific appropriate 
terms throughout the New Testament, employed when 
public sensible miracles are intended to be expressed. 
This will appear by consulting, amongst other places, the 
texts referred to in the note f ; and it cannot be shown 
that they are ever employed to express any thing else. 

Secondly, these words not only denote miracles as op- 
posed to natural effects, but they denote visible, ad what 
may be called external, miracles, as distinguished, 

First, from inspiration. If St. Paul had meant to 
refer only to secret illuminations of his understanding, or 
secret influences upon his will or affections, he could not, 
with truth, have represented them as " signs and wonders 
" wrought by him," or "signs and wonders and mighty 
" deeds wrought amongst them." 

Secondly, from visions. These would not, by any 
means, satisfy the force of the terms, " signs, wonders, 
" and mighty deeds ; " still less could they be said to be 
iC wrought by him," or " wrought amongst them : " nor 

* To these may be added the following indirect allusions, which 
though if they had stood alone, i. e. without plainer texts in the 
same writings, they might have been accounted dubious ; yet, 
when considered in conjunction with the passages already cited, 
can hardly receive any other interpretation than that which we 
give them. 

" My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of 
" men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; 
" that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in 
" the power of God." 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. 

" The gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the 
" gift of the grace of God given unto me, by the effectual working 
" of his power." Eph. iii. 7. 

" For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of 
" the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gen- 
" tiles." Gal. ii. 8. 

" For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in 
" power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 1 Thess. 
i. 5. 

f Mark, xvi. 20. Luke, xxiii. 8. John, ii. 11. 23; iii. 2; iv, 
48. 54 ; xi. 47. Acts, ii. 22 ; iv. 30 ; v. 12 ; vi. 8 ; viii. 6 ; xiv. 3 ; 
xv. 12. Heb. ii. 4. 



218 HOR.E PAULINJE. 

are these terms and expressions any where applied to 
visions. When our author alludes to the supernatural 
communications which he had received, either by vision or 
otherwise, he uses expressions suited to the nature of the 
subject, but very different from the words which we have 
quoted. He calls them revelations, but never signs, won- 
ders, or mighty deeds. " I will come," says he, " to 
" visions and revelations of the Lord ; " [2 Cor. xii. 1. .] 
and then proceeds to describe a particular instance, and 
afterwards adds, " lest I should be exalted above mea- 
" sure through the abundance of the revelations, there 
" was given to me a thorn in the flesh." Upon the whole, 
the matter admits of no softening qualification, or ambi- 
guity whatever. If St. Paul did not work actual, sen- 
sible, public miracles, he has knowingly, in these letters, 
borne his testimony to a falsehood. I need not add, that, 
in two also of the quotations, he has advanced his asser- 
tion in the face of those persons amongst whom he de- 
clares the miracles to have been wrought. 

Let it be remembered that the Acts of the Apostles 
describe various particular miracles wrought by St. Paul, 
which in their nature answer to the terms and expressions 
which we have seen to be used by St. Paul himself. 



Here then we have a man of liberal attainments, and in 
other points of sound judgment, who had addicted his life 
to the service of the gospel. We see him, in the prose- 
cution of his purpose, travelling from country to country, 
enduring every species of hardship, encountering every 
extremity of danger, assaulted by the populace, punished 
by the magistrates, scourged, beat, stoned, left for dead ; 
expecting, wherever he came, a renewal of the same treat- 
ment, and the same dangers, yet, when driven from one 
city, preaching in the next ; spending his whole time in 
the employment, sacrificing to it his pleasures, his ease, 
his safety ; persisting in this course to old age, unaltered 
by the experience of perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, 
desertion ; unsubdued by anxiety, want, labour, persecu- 



CONCLUSION. 219 

tions ; unwearied by long confinement, undismayed by the 
prospect of death. Such was St. Paul. We have his 
letters in our hands : we have also a history purporting to 
be written by one of his fellow-travellers, and appearing, 
by a comparison with these letters, certainly to have been 
written by some person well acquainted with the transac- 
tions of his life. From the letters, as well as from the 
history, we gather not only the account which we have 
stated of him, but that he was one out of many who acted 
and suffered in the same manner ; and that, of those who 
did so, several had been the companions of Christ's ministry, 
the ocular witnesses, or pretending to be such, of his 
miracles, and of his resurrection. We moreover find this 
same person referring in his letters to his supernatural 
conversion, the particulars and accompanying circum- 
stances of which are related in the history, and which ac- 
companying circumstances, if all or any of them be true, 
render it impossible to have been a delusion. We also 
find him positively, and in appropriated terms, asserting, 
that he himself worked miracles, strictly and properly so 
called, in support of the mission which he executed ; the 
history, meanwhile, recording various passages of his 
ministry, which come up to the extent of this asser- 
tion. The question is, whether falsehood was ever at- 
tested by evidence like this. Falsehoods, we know, 
have found their way into reports, into tradition, into 
books : but is an example to be met with, of a man volun- 
tarily undertaking a life of want and pain, of incessant 
fatigue, of continual peril ; submitting to the loss of his 
home and country, to stripes and stoning', to tedious im- 
prisonment, and the constant expectation of a violent 
death, for the sake of carrying about a story of what was 
false, and of what, if false, he must have known to be 
so ? 



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